April 16, 2021, 7:18 PM 1:19 The crew for the second long-duration SpaceX Crew Dragon mission to the International Space Station, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-2, are pictured during a training session at the SpaceX training facility in Hawthorne, Calif. SpaceX The four astronauts who are set to lift off next week arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday for final preparations ahead of the NASA-SpaceX launch. The Crew-2 mission marks the third time a SpaceX rocket and spacecraft will carry NASA astronauts to the International Space Station and reflects the evolving space-faring landscape as the private sector becomes increasingly involved in the closely watched missions. MORE: SpaceX to launch all-civilian crew to space, and 1 seat is up for grabs Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft is currently scheduled for 6:11 a.m. ET on Thursday from the historic Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. The Crew Dragon is set to dock at the International Space Station at about 5:30 a.m ET on Friday. The crew for the second long-duration SpaceX Crew Dragon mission to the International Space Station, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-2, are pictured during a training session at the SpaceX training facility in Hawthorne, Calif. SpaceX During a news conference Friday afternoon, Kennedy Space Center director Bob Cabana told reporters that the Crew Dragon spacecraft being used in Thursday's launch is the same one that sent and returned astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley during the first-ever manned NASA-SpaceX mission last May. In addition, the Falcon 9 rocket is the same one that sent the Crew-1 astronauts to the ISS last November. MORE: Corporate space flight lifts off in 2020: The major missions over the past year Kimbrough, the mission’s commander, is an Army veteran who first went to space in 2008. The Texas native has logged 189 days in space, and first joined NASA as a flight simulation engineer in 2000. He was selected to be an astronaut in 2004. Kimbrough, 53, has three children with his wife, Robbie Lynn. His NASA bio says he enjoys baseball, golf, weightlifting and running. NASA's Megan McArthur McArthur, 49, is the mission’s pilot -- and is married to fellow astronaut Bob Behnken, who was part of the two-person crew that launched the first-ever NASA-SpaceX flight last May. She was selected as an astronaut in 2000, and was aboard the final space shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009. She has spent 13 days in space. Behnken said in an interview last August that as his wife prepares for her mission, his focus is on "supporting her just as she did me" and caring for their young son. "It’s definitely her turn to focus on getting her mission accomplished while I take care of the things that need to be taken care of for our home life," Behnken said. McArthur quipped in a video released by NASA about the crew that the thing she is most looking forward to while living on the ISS is "karaoke night." JAXA's Akihiko "Aki" Hoshide Hoshide, a mission specialist, is a native of Tokyo, and went on his first spaceflight in 2008. After graduating from university in Tokyo, he got a master's degree from the University of Houston, Cullen College of Engineering in Texas. In 2012, he spent 124 days on the ISS. The 52-year-old said he is most looking forward to "spending some precious time with each other" while at the space station. Kimbrough, the mission's commander, quipped that Hoshide had the worst poker face out of the entire crew. ESA's Thomas Pesquet