CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s subsequent astronaut crew is ready to launch to the International Space Station on Sunday (Oct. 31), marking the third operational crewed flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft.
The mission, called Crew-3, is slated to carry off earlier than daybreak on Oct. 31 from Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center right here in Florida at 2:21 a.m. EDT (0621 GMT). And, if all goes as deliberate, the Crew Dragon Endurance will dock with the orbital outpost lower than 24-hours later.
Live updates: Follow SpaceX’s Crew-3 astronaut launch for NASA
Strapped contained in the gumdrop-shaped SpaceX capsule will probably be NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, and Kayla Barron, together with German astronaut Matthias Maurer from the European Space Agency (ESA).
Before you tune into the live launch coverage on Space.com and NASA TV, let’s get to know the newest group of space flyers launching aboard SpaceX’s latest Dragon crew capsule.
NASA astronaut Raja Chari, commander
Raja Chari, 44, is one among NASA’s newest group of astronauts, becoming a member of the astronaut corps in 2017 alongside together with his Crew 3 crewmate Kayla Barron. He is skilled as a check pilot from the U.S. Navy check pilot faculty and is the Crew 3 mission commander, marking the primary time a rookie business crew astronaut was named to the place.
Chari graduated with a masters diploma from MIT in aeronautics and astronautics and has logged over 2,500 flight hours. He has all the time been fascinated with flying, and selected to go to check pilot faculty because it mixed two of his favourite issues: engineering and flying.
He was the commander of the 461st Flight Test Squadron at Edwards Air Force Base in California when he was chosen as an astronaut and following two years of astronaut coaching, Chari went on to develop into the Director of the Joint Test Team for NASA’s business crew program.
In 2020, NASA introduced its cadre of astronauts that will probably be a part of the company’s return to the moon; Chari was introduced as one of the 18 astronauts selected.
NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn, pilot
Tom Marshburn, 61, is a doctor, who’s skilled in emergency medication, and began his profession at NASA in 1994 as a flight surgeon.
Selected as an astronaut in 2004, Marshburn is a veteran of two spaceflights: STS-127 and Expedition 34/35. Prior to becoming a member of the astronaut corps, he served as a flight surgeon, assigned to the space shuttle medical operations and to the joint U.S./Russian space program. He was then promoted to Medical Operations Lead for the ISS.
He accomplished his first spaceflight, STS-127 in 2009, having logged greater than 376 hours in space and just below 19 hours over the course of three spacewalks. Marshburn launched to the space station on his second flight in 2012, the place he racked up a further 146 days in space and one other 5.5 hours spacewalk time as a part of an emergency spacewalk to restore a leaking ammonia pump.
Marshburn is the one veteran astronaut on the Crew 3 mission, and can function the mission’s pilot.
NASA astronaut Kayla Barron, mission specialist
Kayla Barron, 34, is a graduate of the U.S. Naval academy, having earned her grasp’s diploma in Nuclear engineering from the University of Cambridge. She’s one of many top quality of ladies to be commissioned as a submarine officer.
She then joined the astronaut corps in 2017, alongside along with her Crew 3 crewmate, Raja Chari. Barron is serving as a mission specialist for the flight and the Crew 3 mission will mark her first spaceflight.
Barron says she has by no means witnessed a rocket launch up shut, so her flight will probably be her first launch all-around. She advised Space.com in a prelaunch chat that she is most excited to hopefully log some spacewalk time.
As a part of her duties as a mission specialist, Barron will monitor the Crew Dragon’s launch and re-entry phases throughout flight to ensure all the pieces is progressing nominally. Once on board the ISS, she’s going to function a flight engineer.
Also selected as one of NASA’s Artemis astronauts, Barron may be part of Chari as one of many two astronauts that might stroll on the lunar floor one day.
ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer, mission specialist
Matthias Maurer, 51, is a German astronaut with the European Space Agency. He studied supplies engineering earlier than joining Europe’s astronaut corps in 2017. (He was retroactively added to ESA’s astronaut class of 2009.) He began out as a crew help engineer earlier than graduating to astronaut candidate in 2015.
Prior to that, in 2014, Maurer took half within the CAVES mission, an analogue mission the place a crew of astronauts reside and work in an underground cave to be able to simulate the remoted situations of outer space.
He then participated in one other analogue mission — NASA’s NEEMO 21 (NASA Extreme Environment Operations Mission) — the place he and three different crewmates lived in an underwater habitat for 16 days. Maurer and his crew examined out applied sciences and techniques that NASA and its companions will use for future Mars missions.
Maurer says he’s mentioning some particular German meals to share together with his crewmates. “It’s Ragu that’s made from potato soup — typical German food — and I’ll be sharing it with my crewmates,” he mentioned throughout a prelaunch information briefing on Oct. 7. “It’s a surprise for me, so I haven’t tested it yet. But I’m pretty sure it will be very delicious.”
He is the second European astronaut to fly on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, following the footsteps of French astronaut, Thomas Pesquet, who launched in April as a part of the Crew-2 mission. He will function a mission specialist on the flight, together with crewmate Kayla Barron.
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