#Spacex nasa astronauts home with safe series

Mann, Cassada, Wakata, and Kikina will join the space station’s Expedition 68 crew of NASA astronauts Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, Frank Rubio, and Jessica Watkins, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin. NASA also will cover the ceremony to welcome the crew aboard the orbital outpost about 8:15 p.m. NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website will provide live coverage of docking and hatch opening.

#Spacex nasa astronauts home with safe series

This is the sixth SpaceX flight with NASA astronauts – including the Demo-2 test flight in 2020 to the space station – as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.ĭuring Dragon’s flight, SpaceX will monitor a series of automatic spacecraft maneuvers from its mission control center in Hawthorne, California, and NASA teams will monitor space station operations throughout the flight from the Mission Control Center at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.ĭragon will dock autonomously to the space-facing port of the station’s Harmony module around 4:57 p.m. This is the first spaceflight for Mann, Cassada, and Kikina, and the fifth for Wakata. While our eyes are focused upward on the heavens, let us never forget these missions will also better life here on Earth.”

“During their stay aboard the International Space Station, Crew-5 will conduct more than 200 science experiments and technology demonstrations, including studies on printing human organs in space and better understanding heart disease. It’s a new era powered by the spirit of partnership, fueled by scientific ingenuity, and inspired by the quest for new discoveries,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “Missions like Crew-5 are proof we are living through a golden era of commercial space exploration. JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina, also aboard the Dragon, will serve as mission specialists for their science expedition in microgravity aboard the space station.

The international crew will serve as the agency’s fifth commercial crew rotation mission with SpaceX aboard the orbital laboratory.Ī SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket propelled the Dragon Endurance spacecraft into orbit carrying NASA astronauts Nicole Mann as mission commander, and Josh Cassada, pilot. The crew members assigned to NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission are in orbit following their launch to the International Space Station noon EDT Wednesday, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. U003cstrongu003eCredits: NASA/Joel Kowskyu003c/strongu003e