A NASA it’s at SpaceX are finalizing preparations for the launch of the third manned space mission to the International Space Station, scheduled for October 30 with four astronauts aboard the Dragon spacecraft.
SpaceX Crew-3 astronauts are Commander Raja Chari, pilot Tom Marshburn, NASA mission specialist Kayla Barron, and German scientist Matthias Maurer of the European Space Agency (ESA), who will replace their mission colleagues previous.
Marshburn, 61 and an astronaut since 2004, said during a press conference on Thursday that it will be a “critical” mission because it is the first time his three companions have traveled into space.
The crew, who will remain in the microgravity lab for six months, were happy to debut a new Dragon capsule, which will be powered by a Falcon 9 rocket, which will be added to SpaceX’s other two existing ones, the Endeavor and the Resilience.
The mission is scheduled to depart at 02.43 locations (07.43 from Lisbon) of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in the State of Florida.
If all goes as planned, Dragon is expected to dock on the International Space Station in the early hours of October 31st.
This mission will use a new Dragon capsule from SpaceX, which they are building another to use starting in 2022, bringing their fleet to four.
According to the company of Elon Musk, this way they will multiply even more space travel with Dragon capsules and Falcon 9 rockets, both reusable.
The new crew will replace NASA’s American astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, as well as Japan’s Akihiko Hoshide, from the JAXA space agency, and ESA’s Frenchman Thomas Pesquet, who are expected to return to Earth in mid- November.
ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet shows off the Lumina experiment on the International Space Station, which tests new technology to measure ionizing radiation within the Station.
ESA / NASA – T. Pesquet
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