Astronaut Akihiko Hoshide said Monday that he is prepared and eager to become the second Japanese person to be ferried to the International Space Station aboard the commercially developed SpaceX spacecraft.
"I'm very excited ... especially flying on a new Crew Dragon, to see what it's like to fly and compare differences and similarities with the (Space) Shuttle and Soyuz," the 52-year-old veteran of two spaceflights said during an online news conference.
Hoshide attended the news conference with three fellow crew members from NASA and the European Space Agency ahead of their liftoff that is scheduled no earlier than April 20.