NASA announced astronauts Tuesday that they will fly aboard the SpaceX Crew-2 mission to the International Space Station next spring.
Two of the astronauts are Americans: Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur. Akihiko Hoshide is from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Thomas Pesquet from France is from the European Space Agency (ESA).
SpaceX made history in late May when it launched NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken onto the ISS on the SpaceX Demo-2 test flight mission, the first time astronauts took off from US soil since the end of the program. from the space shuttle. a decade ago.
SPACEX MAKES HISTORY, LAUNCHES NASA ASTRONAUTS TO THE SPACE OF THE FLOOR OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2011
That SpaceX Crew Dragon flight was the first time that a private company, rather than a government, sent astronauts into orbit. They are scheduled to return to Earth on Sunday.
Behnken, who directed the Demo-2 mission, is married to McArthur, who will pilot the Crew-2 mission. In between, there is also a Crew-1 mission slated to launch in late September.
McArthur, who was born in Hawaii but calls California his home state, has a previous trip to space under his belt, according to NASA. It was launched with the space shuttle Atlantis on a mission to the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009.
SPACEX SPACECRAFT DOCKS WITH THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION ON NASA’S HISTORICAL MISSION
Kimbrough, a retired Texas-born and Atlanta-raised army colonel, will serve as the mission’s spacecraft commander. It will be his third trip to space and his second long-term stay aboard the space station. It has already logged 189 days in space and has taken off on board both the retired space shuttle Endeavor in 2008 and a Russian Soyuz rocket in 2016.
The Crew-2 mission will be Hoshide’s third space flight, which was part of the STS-124 mission aboard Discovery in 2008 and whose most recent launch included a 124-day stay aboard the ISS in 2012.
Pesquet, the youngest crew member at 42, is also the only one who has never participated in a mission under the now retired US space shuttle program. But he has already spent 196 days in space.
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Crew-2 astronauts are expected to remain aboard the space station for about six months along with three other crew members who will arrive separately in a Russian Soyuz. That makes it a crew of seven, rather than the usual six, which NASA says will allow twice as much research to be done during their stay.
Fox News’ James Rogers contributed to this report.
