After a 6-month stay at the International Space Station (ISS), SpaceX’s first operational crew mission returned early this morning back on Earth.
The International Space Station is designed to always be crewed by cosmonauts and astronauts. For this reason, women and men have been living and working in space constantly since the first Expedition mission in the year 2000. So how many people are in space right now?
Before Commercial Crew the Soyuz was the only way to the ISS and normally only two were ever docked, making up a crew size of no more than 6. Now with SpaceX’s Crew 1 is on board, upon MS-18’s arrival, there are now 10 crew members for Expedition 64.
Expedition 64 continues and the beginning of Expedition 65 begins as teams prepare to launch the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft carrying 2 Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut to the ISS in the beginning of April.
Date: Friday, April 9th, 3:42 AM EDT
SpaceX’s first operational crewed mission for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program has been on the International Space Station (ISS) since November of last year. The crew is planning to prepare the station for a new group of astronauts coming up in April from both Russia and the US.
Boeing is positioned to start flying astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA as soon as this year, but the Starliner spacecraft must complete an orbital flight test without crew. NASA and Boeing now have a new date set for when the OFT-2 mission will be conducted. If successful, Boeing’s Starliner will join SpaceX’s Crew Dragon in transporting astronauts from the U.S. to the ISS for NASA’s Commercial Crew program.
Back in early October, Northrup Grumman launched a Cygnus spacecraft named after NASA Astronaut Kalpana Chawla on top of an Antares rocket from Wallops Island, Virginia. It carried over 8,000 pounds of supplies to the station and was released today by ground teams.
Axiom Space is currently working on plans to develop what will be the world’s first commercial space station. The company has stated that it plans on setting up its headquarters in Houston, where it will later begin production of the bold project.
On November 15, at 7:27 p.m. EST, an international crew of astronauts launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission was called Crew-1, and onboard was Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Soichi Noguchi, all headed to the International Space Station.
NASA and ESA have announced which three astronauts will train and become crew members for SpaceX Crew-3 mission in 2021. The mission, which is expected to launch sometime in the fall next year, will carry the three selected astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft.
