WASHINGTON, Oct. 5, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — The crew members assigned to NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission are in orbit following their launch to the International Space Station midday EDT Wednesday, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The worldwide crew will function the company’s fifth industrial crew rotation mission with SpaceX aboard the orbital laboratory.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket propelled the Dragon Endurance spacecraft into orbit carrying NASA astronauts Nicole Mann as mission commander, and Josh Cassada, pilot. JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina, additionally aboard the Dragon, will function mission specialists for his or her science expedition in microgravity aboard the house station.
“Missions like Crew-5 are proof we are living through a golden era of commercial space exploration. It’s a new era powered by the spirit of partnership, fueled by scientific ingenuity, and inspired by the quest for new discoveries,” mentioned NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “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. While our eyes are focused upward on the heavens, let us never forget these missions will also better life here on Earth.”
This is the primary spaceflight for Mann, Cassada, and Kikina, and the fifth for Wakata. This is the sixth SpaceX flight with NASA astronauts – together with the Demo-2 test flight in 2020 to the house station – as a part of the company’s Commercial Crew Program.
During Dragon’s flight, SpaceX will monitor a sequence of automated spacecraft maneuvers from its mission management heart in Hawthorne, California, and NASA groups will monitor house station operations all through the flight from the Mission Control Center on the company’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Dragon will dock autonomously to the space-facing port of the station’s Harmony module round 4:57 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 6. NASA Television, the NASA app, and the company’s website will present reside protection of docking and hatch opening. NASA additionally will cowl the ceremony to welcome the crew aboard the orbital outpost about 8:15 p.m.
Mann, Cassada, Wakata, and Kikina will be part of the house 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. For a short while, the variety of crew aboard the house station will enhance to 11 folks till Crew-4 astronauts Hines Lindgren, Watkins, and Cristoforetti return to Earth just a few days later.
Crew-5 will spend a number of months aboard the house station conducting new scientific research in areas, reminiscent of cardiovascular well being, bioprinting, and fluid habits in microgravity to put together for human exploration past low-Earth orbit and to profit life on Earth.
“The International Space Station continues to serve a critical role in helping NASA and our partners understand and maximize the unique attributes of the microgravity environment,” mentioned Kathryn Lueders, affiliate administrator for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate in Washington. “I am grateful to the many people who worked to ensure a safe Crew-5 launch despite the recent hurricane so the crew can fulfill their mission to the orbiting laboratory.”
The Crew-5 mission continues NASA’s efforts to preserve American management in human spaceflight. Regular commercial crew rotation missions allow NASA to proceed the essential analysis and expertise investigations happening aboard the station. Such analysis advantages folks on Earth and lays the groundwork for future human exploration by means of the company’s Artemis missions, which is able to ship astronauts to the Moon to put together for future expeditions to Mars
Meet Crew-5
As commander, Mann is answerable for all phases of flight, from launch to re-entry, and can function an Expedition 68 flight engineer. This might be her first spaceflight since changing into an astronaut in 2013. Mann was born in Petaluma, California, and would be the first indigenous lady from NASA in house. She is a colonel within the U.S. Marine Corps, and he or she served as a check pilot within the F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet.
Cassada is the spacecraft pilot and second in command for the mission. He is answerable for spacecraft techniques and efficiency. Aboard the station, he’ll function an Expedition 68 flight engineer. This might be his first flight since his choice as an astronaut in 2013. Cassada grew up in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, and is a physicist and U.S. Navy check pilot.
Wakata might be making his fifth journey to house and as a mission specialist he’ll work carefully with the commander and pilot to monitor the spacecraft in the course of the dynamic launch and re-entry phases of flight. Once aboard the station, he’ll function a flight engineer for Expedition 68. With Crew-5’s launch, Dragon would be the third totally different sort of spacecraft Wakata has flown to house.
Kikina might be making her first journey to house, and can function a mission specialist, working to monitor the spacecraft in the course of the dynamic launch and re-entry phases of flight. She might be a flight engineer for Expedition 68.
Learn extra about NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission and Commercial Crew Program at:
https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew
SOURCE NASA
