Crew-6 En-Route to Join Expedition 68 for Science Expedition on the International Space Station
The AO Editors
On March 3, 2023, at 12:34 a.m. EST, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission launched from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
SpaceX/NASA
NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg, United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev are among the international crew members aboard the Dragon spacecraft, dubbed Endeavour. The spacecraft was launched into orbit by the Falcon 9 rocket for a science mission aboard the International Space Station.
The successful launch is the agency's sixth commercial crew rotation mission aboard the orbital laboratory with SpaceX. Over 200 experiments will be carried out aboard the International Space Station by Crew-6 in order to prepare for future missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond, as well as to improve life on Earth. The experiments will include research into how specific materials burn in microgravity, tissue chip research on heart, brain, and cartilage functions, and a microbial sample collection from the outside of the space station.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson congratulated the NASA and SpaceX teams on the mission's success and emphasized the importance of the Commercial Crew Program in demonstrating American ingenuity and leadership in space. Through groundbreaking science, innovative technology, and newfound collaboration, the program benefits all of humanity.
SpaceX will monitor a series of automatic spacecraft maneuvers from its mission control center in California during the flight, while NASA teams will monitor space station operations from the Mission Control Center at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Around 1:17 a.m. on Friday, March 3, the Dragon spacecraft will dock autonomously to the station's Harmony module's space-facing port. The docking and hatch opening will be broadcast live on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the NASA website. Around 3:40 a.m., NASA TV will broadcast a ceremony welcoming the crew aboard the orbital outpost.
The four SpaceX Crew-6 mission crew members sit inside the SpaceX Dragon crew ship during a training session at the company's headquarters in Hawthorne, California. Mission Specialist Andrey Fedyaev, Pilot Warren "Woody" Hoburg, Commander Stephen Bowen, and Mission Specialist Sultan Alneyadi are seated in their spacesuits from left to right.
SpaceX/NASA
Crew-6 will join Expedition 68, which includes NASA astronauts Frank Rubio, Nicole Mann, and Josh Cassada, as well as JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitri Petelin, and Anna Kikina. The 11 crew members will live and work in space together until the return of Crew-5 members Mann, Cassada, Wakata, and Kikina a few days later.
Kathryn Lueders, Associate Administrator for NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate in Washington, emphasized the critical role of Commercial Crew Program missions like Crew-6 in maximizing the important research that is only possible in the space station's unique microgravity environment.
The Crew-6 mission allows NASA to make the best use of the space station, where astronauts have been living and working continuously for more than 22 years, testing technologies, performing science, and developing the skills required to operate future commercial destinations in low-Earth orbit and explore further from Earth. Space station research benefits people on Earth and paves the way for future long-duration trips to the Moon and beyond via NASA's Artemis missions.
