SpaceX launched four astronauts, including two from the United States, one from UAE, and one from Russia, into orbit for a six-month aboard the International Space Station (ISS), according to NASA.
This mission marks SpaceX’s sixth crewed mission to the ISS as part of NASA’s commercial crew program.
The astronauts will spend their time conducting scientific experiments and performing maintenance tasks before returning to Earth.
For the next six months, they will conduct over 200 experiments, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said. The experiments will “help us to prepare for missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond, as well as improve life here on Earth. We look forward to seeing all that they accomplish” Nelson said in a statement.
The Crew-6 mission would allow NASA to maximize the use of the space station, where astronauts have lived and worked for more than 22 years testing technologies and developing the skills needed to operate future commercial destinations in low-Earth orbit and beyond.
“For more than two decades, humans have continuously lived and worked aboard the International Space Station,” said Kathryn Lueders, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate in Washington. “Commercial Crew Program missions like Crew-6 are essential so we can continue to maximize the important research possible only in the space station’s unique microgravity environment.”
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6
The four astronauts aboard the SpaceX Dragon, named Endeavour, include two NASA astronauts, Crew-6 commander Stephen Bowen and Pilot Woody Hoburg, along with UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.
Bowen, who has logged more than 40 days in space, will be responsible for all phases of flight, from launch to re-entry as mission commander. The mission will be the first flight for Hoburg since his selection as an astronaut in 2017. As a pilot, he will be responsible for spacecraft systems and performance.
The inclusion of UAE astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, 41, in the Crew 6 mission is noteworthy as he became only the second person from his country to travel to space and the first to launch from U.S. soil as part of a long-duration space station team. This will be Fedyaev’s first trip to space, and he will serve as a mission specialist.
