Test pilot, doctor, German astronaut to fly on 3rd SpaceX Crew Dragon mission to space station [4th astronaut TBD]

[Hamartia Antidote]

Test pilot, doctor, German astronaut to fly on 3rd SpaceX Crew Dragon mission to space station

Building on SpaceX’s first two successful flights to the International Space Station with astronauts, NASA has revealed the fourth round of people to fly commercial to the orbiting laboratory.

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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. – Building on SpaceX’s first two successful flights to the International Space Station with astronauts, NASA has revealed the fourth round of people to fly commercial to the orbiting laboratory.

Two NASA astronauts, Raja Chari and Tom Marshburn will be joined by European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer for the Crew-3 mission in the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. Selection for a fourth crewmate is still ongoing between NASA and its international partners, according to the space agency.

Chari, a 2017 class astronaut, is also training for NASA’s Artemis program to the moon. He was selected, along with 17 other NASA astronauts, to be among the first to step foot back on the lunar surface--hopefully in the next few years. Crew-3 will mark Chari’s first spaceflight. He is a U.S. Air Force test pilot with more than 2,500 hours of flight time over his career.

Marshburn was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 2004. As a medical doctor, he served as the flight surgeon at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and later the medical operations lead for the space station. Crew-3 will mark his third spaceflight.

Maurer is a German astronaut with the ESA. Like Chari, Crew-3 will mark his first spaceflight. According to NASA, he is an engineer and researcher. He previously spent 16 days on an undersea mission with NASA’s NEEMO program. The undersea program helps astronauts train for spacewalks and other space tasks, including sample research.

Crew-3 will mark the fourth overall trip with Dragon to the ISS carrying humans but the third operational long-duration stay, according to NASA.

This year, NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley became the first to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 in the capsule to the ISS on a test flight, they returned home in August. Then in November, SpaceX again launched the Crew Dragon but this time with four astronauts-- three American and one Japanese. Those astronauts are still living and working on the ISS and will be until next spring.

Early next year, four astronauts will launch on the Crew-2 mission. That international crew includes NASA’s Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough, JAXA’s Akihiko Hoshide and ESA’s Thomas Pesquet (France). McArthur’s husband, Bob Behnken was on the first crewed test flight of Crew Dragon earlier this year.

The Crew-3 mission is slated for fall 2021.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Next SpaceX commercial crew mission to launch in April

The second operational SpaceX commercial crew mission to the International Space Station will now launch in mid-April, carrying four astronauts.

spacenews.com

Next SpaceX commercial crew mission to launch in April

NASA said Jan. 29 that it set a launch date of April 20 for the Crew-2 mission to the station. NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur will be the commander and pilor, respectively, with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and European Space Agency Thomas Pesquet on board as mission specialists.

The four will replace the Crew-1 astronauts who flew to the station in November on the first operational Crew Dragon mission. NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi, will return in that spacecraft in late April or early May, assuming Crew-2 launches on its current schedule.

NASA earlier announced a no-earlier-than launch date for Crew-2 of March 30. However, it delayed the mission to allow the uncrewed Orbital Flight Test 2 mission by Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle to launch no earlier than March 25 for an approximately one-week mission. Both Starliner and Crew Dragon dock to one of two ports on the station, one of which is occupied by the Crew-1 Crew Dragon spacecraft.

The delay to April 20 also accommodates a Soyuz spacecraft, Soyuz MS-18, scheduled to launch around April 10. It will bring three Russian cosmonauts to the station, with Soyuz MS-17 returning to Earth a week later with Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, on board.

“Around the mid-March timeframe we’ll really start to ramp up our preparations for doing some visiting vehicle operations,” Kenny Todd, deputy manager of the ISS program at NASA, said during a Jan. 22 briefing about an upcoming series of spacewalks at the station.

At the briefing he didn’t give a schedule for those missions. “We are still working with our Russian colleagues as well as the Commercial Crew Program to firm up the schedules for the Soyuz 64S and Crew-2 flights,” he said in a Jan. 27 statement to SpaceNews, using the NASA designation for Soyuz MS-18. “Both flights are currently targeting spring 2021, but specific launch dates have yet to be finalized.”

Two of the Crew-1 astronauts, Hopkins and Glover, performed the first in a series of spacewalks Jan. 27, working on the exterior of the Columbus module to support the Bartolomeo external payload platform and to install a new communications antenna there. A second spacewalk on Feb. 1 will complete the installation of a new battery for the station’s power system.

Another pair of spacewalks is tentatively planned for late February or early March, Todd said at the briefing. Those would take place after the arrival of a Cygnus cargo spacecraft currently scheduled for launch Feb. 20.

 

[Pakistan Space Agency]

Has NASA now stopped using Russia's Soyuz to travel to and back from the ISS?

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Has NASA now stopped using Russia's Soyuz to travel to and back from the ISS?

They have still prepaid for some...but unlikely renewing.

Edit: It looks like the one a few months ago in October was the last prepaid one

NASA signs deal for additional Soyuz seat - SpaceNews

NASA will pay more than $90 million for an additional seat on a Soyuz spacecraft launching to the ISS this fall in case of further commercial crew delays.

spacenews.com

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Soyuz launch marks end of an era for NASA - SpaceNews

A Soyuz spacecraft launched to the International Space Station Oct. 14 on what will likely be the last mission where NASA pays Russia for a seat.

spacenews.com

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[Hamartia Antidote]

Fourth NASA Astronaut Joins Space X Crew-3 Mission’s Next Human Space Flight to ISS: Who Is Kayla Bayron?

NASA has selected Kayla Bayron as a fourth astronaut to join the next human spaceflight mission to the International Space Station.

www.sciencetimes.com

NASA confirmed astronaut Kayla Barron's selection for SpaceX's Crew-3 flight. The US Navy's lieutenant commander meets Raja Chari and Tom Marshburn of the US agency and Matthias Maurer of the European Space Agency (ESA) to the International Space Station (ISS).

(Photo: NASA)

The commercial mission will launch on October 23 and will stay in space for six months. Along with German Matthias Maurer, Kayla Barron will be the next mission specialist. Marshburn, who is on his third flight, will act as a pilot, while Chari will serve as the spacecraft's commander. The space agency selected all three in December 2020.