NASA is gearing up to launch four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule.
The mission, set for launch on November 14, is notable for being the first operational flight for the spacecraft, having successfully completed the Demo-2 test mission with astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken over the summer.
Offering space fans the chance to get to know a little more about the four folks heading to the orbiting outpost 250 miles above Earth, NASA has released a video (top) introducing the astronauts in a fun Q&A session.
The Crew-1 astronauts include NASA’s Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker, along with Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi from Japan’s space agency, JAXA.
“After many months of work together (for some of them, years) they know each other pretty well, so we asked them to prove it,” NASA said in a message posted with the video. “Have a look as four astronauts who are about to spend six months in space together talk about what they’re expecting from life on the space station, and share their advice for the one among them who has never been there before.”
When you’re in space and far from home, having a laugh surely helps to keep everyone’s spirits up. According to the video, Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi is the joker among the pack.
When asked, “Who on the crew makes you laugh the most?” the other three are quick to name Noguchi, with Glover saying that although he’s kind of quiet, his humor is “very dry and subtle [and] extremely witty.”
Other questions thrown at the astronauts include, “What is something you’re better at than the others?,” “What are you most looking forward to doing with your crewmates?,” and one no doubt at the forefront of many space fans’ minds: “Who would come last in a footrace?”
The astronauts will join NASA’s Kate Rubins and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov aboard the space station, which this month sees 20 years of continuous human presence. You can find out more about daily life on the ISS via videos posted by past visitors to the station.
Be sure to check back soon for all the details on how to watch a livestream of the historic launch from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, set for Saturday, November 14.
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