NASA SpaceX Crew-5 crew headed to ISS enters quarantine

In preparation for NASA's SpaceX Crew-5 mission to the International Space Station, NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, along with JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata and Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina, entered an official quarantine period Monday, September 19, local time. A regular part of the final preparations for all missions to the space station is the process of stabilizing the health of the flight crew. Quarantining the last two weeks before liftoff helps ensure the health of Crew-5 crew members, while it also helps protect astronauts already on the space station. Crew members have the option to quarantine at home, as long as they can maintain quarantine conditions before heading to NAS' Kennedy Space Center in Florida. If home quarantine is not possible, crew members also have the option to live in the astronaut quarantine facility at Johnson Space Center until they travel to JFK. This is usually done when family members are unable to maintain quarantine due to work or school assignments. NASA's SpaceX Crew-5 mission, part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program, is the fifth crew rotation flight to the space station. Crew-5 is targeted to launch no earlier than 12:45 p.m. ET on Monday, Oct. 3, from Launch Site 39A at Kennedy by Dragon Endurance aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. The mission operations team will closely monitor weather conditions prior to liftoff. After docking with the space station, Crew-5 astronauts will be welcomed inside the station by the seven-member Expedition 68. A few days after Crew-5's arrival, astronauts on NASA's SpaceX Crew-4 mission will unlock from the space station and return to Earth, landing off the coast of Florida.