NASA and SpaceX are preparing to deploy Crew 5 on an American rocket and spaceship to the International Space Station next month to print human organs in space and conduct other scientific experiments.
NASA's SpaceX Crew-5 will launch from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida with astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada of NASA, astronaut Koichi Wakata of JAXA (the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), and cosmonaut Anna Kikina of Roscosmos.
The SpaceX Dragon Endurance spaceship will carry the four-person international crew as they go to the orbiting laboratory to spend up to six months there before returning to Earth.
NASA said the voyage marks the sixth Dragon with humans flight as part of the space agency's Commercial Crew Program and the fifth crew rotation mission with SpaceX to the International Space Station.
From left are crew members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission – Anna Kikina, mission specialist; Josh Cassada, pilot; Nicole Mann, spacecraft commander; and Koichi Wakata, mission specialist – shown inside the crew access arm at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A.
NASA, SpaceX to Launch Crew-5 Mission to Conduct Scientific Experiments
Once in space, the team will be kept busy overseeing the ISS's numerous experiments.
NASA (via EarthSky) mentioned that future research would focus on manufacturing human organs in space, better comprehending lunar fuel systems, and treating heart disease.
These are only a few more than 200 scientific investigations and technological displays that will occur throughout their mission.
The newcomers will join three other people who have just arrived on the ISS following a Soyuz launch from Russia last week. If all goes according to plan, Crew-5 will stay aboard the station for six months.
Our next @Commercial_Crew launch to the @Space_Station is scheduled to lift off from @NASA_Kennedy no earlier than Monday, Oct. 3.
— NASA (@NASA) September 23, 2022
Get the details on NASA's @SpaceX #Crew5 mission—and learn more about the @ISS_Research we'll be running: https://t.co/BsQ5mr2Gvk pic.twitter.com/hmm2mVYV4G
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About Crew-5 Mission Launch
After a week of launch delays for the most recent Starlink mission and the notoriously delayed Artemis 1 liftoff, NASA and SpaceX may be a little cautious about the date of the Crew-5 launch, which represents an effort to defuse tensions between Russia and the four other ISS partners that were sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
NASA and SpaceX declared that the Crew-5 mission to the International Space Station would launch "no earlier" than Monday, October 3, 2022.
The four-person crew will launch from Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center on a brand-new Falcon 9 launcher and the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance module. The launch time has not yet been made public by SpaceX.
After arriving, the seven members of Expedition 68 will greet Crew-5 inside the station. Several days after the arrival of Crew-5, the astronauts of NASA's SpaceX Crew-4 mission will unberth from the space station and splash down off the coast of Florida.
Roscosmos officials have expressed a desire for "exploration of space for peaceful reasons," according to Reuters, even if this has not been formally recognized as an effort at diplomacy to ease international tensions outside of usual channels.
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