KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — A dad from Minnesota earned his astronaut wings when he and three others blasted off Wednesday from Florida’s Space Coast under a lightly cloudy October afternoon.

Pilot Josh Cassada launched aboard SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance alongside fellow NASA astronaut Nicole Mann, Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina.

The four members of the Crew-5 mission lifted off noon from Launch Complex 39A. With the launch, SpaceX has now flown 30 humans to space. 

What You Need To Know

  • The NASA and SpaceX Crew-5 mission launched from Kennedy Space Center Wednesday afternoon

  • Pilot Josh Cassada, a member of the four-person crew, joined NASA's astronaut corps in 2013

  • Both he and Crew-5 mission commander Nicole Mann were originally slated to fly on a Boeing Starliner

  • Cassada was reassigned to SpaceX Crew Dragon in 2021

When Cassada spoke with Spectrum News prior to launch, he and the crew had just come from a simulation for a spacewalk — something he may be doing for real during his time with Expedition 68 on the International Space Station.

“We did the really cool mass handling," he said of the training. "Some of these things are really massive — in particular, the solar array that we would be deploying — and then we’ve got robotics operations that were coordinated as well. It’s super cool.” 

Like his colleague and Crew-5 mission commander Nicole Mann, Cassada was originally set to fly aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on his first flight to the ISS. He was announced in 2018 as one of the astronauts who would fly as a member of the first certified flight of Starliner. 

However, after the program was delayed, NASA made the decision to switch both Mann and Cassada to SpaceX's Crew Dragon. 

As the launch countdown clock ticked down on Wednesday, Boeing team members at Kennedy Space Center posted their continued support to both Mann and Cassada.

Having spent multiple years with the Starliner program, Cassada said he hopes to have an opportunity to fly with that side of the Commercial Crew Program as well.

“If I got to fly both Crew Dragon and Starliner, holy smokes," he said. "That’s winning the lottery twice."

Cassada said his journey to NASA started back when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. He became a developmental test pilot in 2006 and went on to join the astronaut corps in 2013. That astronaut class is nicknamed “8 Balls.”

He said that experience was a great precursor to getting the Starliner program as far along as he did before shifting to Crew Dragon.

“Got to do a really cool test pilot job alongside Nicole (Mann) with the plan of eventually flying on Starliner,” Cassada said. “And so, we get to the point where now it just makes sense for us to capitalize on all the training.” 

Cassada has deployed multiple times as a member of the Navy, but not since becoming a father. He said being away from his wife and kids will be difficult, but is grateful for all the ways that NASA helps keep astronauts in touch with family members while in space.

He said it was excited that his boys got to lend a hand in designing the Crew-5 mission patch.

“They’ve had to sacrifice quite a bit, you know, for me to have this opportunity," Cassada said. "And so, for them to actually see a physical representation of their contribution is incredibly important."

Cassada will spend about 150 days on the Space Station as part of Expedition 68.