posted 08-01-2024 04:11 PM               

NASA Shares its SpaceX Crew-10 Assignments for Space Station Mission

As part of NASA's SpaceX Crew-10 mission, four crew members are preparing to launch for a long-duration stay aboard the International Space Station.

Above: NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 members (pictured from left to right) NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers, Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, NASA astronaut Anne McClain, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi. (NASA)

NASA astronauts Commander Anne McClain and Pilot Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Mission Specialist Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Mission Specialist Kirill Peskov will join astronauts at the orbiting laboratory no earlier than February 2025.

The flight is the 10th crew rotation with SpaceX to the station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. While aboard, the international crew will conduct scientific investigations and technology demonstrations to help prepare humans for future missions and benefit people on Earth.

Selected by NASA as an astronaut in 2013, this will be McClain's second spaceflight. A colonel in the U.S. Army, she earned her bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, and holds master's degrees in Aerospace Engineering, International Security, and Strategic Studies. The Spokane, Washington, native was an instructor pilot in the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter and is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in Patuxent River, Maryland. McClain has more than 2,300 flight hours in 24 rotary and fixed-wing aircraft, including more than 800 in combat, and was a member of the U.S. Women's National Rugby Team. On her first spaceflight, McClain spent 204 days as a flight engineer during Expeditions 58 and 59 and was the lead on two spacewalks, totaling 13 hours and 8 minutes. Since then, she has served in various roles, including branch chief and space station assistant to the chief of NASA's Astronaut Office.

Ayers is a major in the U.S. Air Force and the first member of NASA's 2021 astronaut class named to a crew. The Colorado native graduated from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs with a bachelor's degree in Mathematics and a minor in Russian, where she was a member of the academy's varsity volleyball team. She later earned a master's in Computational and Applied Mathematics from Rice University in Houston. Ayers served as an instructor pilot and mission commander in the T-38 ADAIR and F-22 Raptor, leading multinational and multiservice missions worldwide. She has more than 1,400 total flight hours, including more than 200 in combat.

With 113 days in space, this mission also will mark Onishi's second trip to the space station. After being selected by JAXA in 2009, he flew as a flight engineer for Expeditions 48 and 49 became the first Japanese astronaut to robotically capture the Cygnus spacecraft. He also constructed a new experimental environment aboard Kibo, the station's Japanese experiment module. Since his spaceflight, Onishi became certified as a JAXA flight director, leading the team responsible for operating Kibo from JAXA Mission Control in Tsukuba, Japan. He holds a bachelor's degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the University of Tokyo and was a pilot for All Nippon Airways, flying more than 3,700 flight hours in the Boeing 767.

NASA's SpaceX Crew-10 mission also will be Peskov's first spaceflight. Before his selection as a cosmonaut in 2018, he earned a degree in Engineering from the Ulyanovsk Civil Aviation School and was a co-pilot on the Boeing 757 and 767 aircraft for airlines Nordwind and Ikar. Assigned as a test-cosmonaut in 2020, he has additional experience in skydiving, zero-gravity training, scuba diving, and wilderness survival.

posted 03-10-2025 09:36 AM               

NASA, SpaceX Complete Dry Dress Rehearsal

Crew members of NASA's SpaceX Crew-10 mission are in the final stages of launch preparations after completing a dry dress rehearsal on March 9 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, Takuya Onishi and Kirill Peskov spent the day donning spacesuits and completing air leak checks inside the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building. Once suited, the crew members boarded vehicles that drove them to Launch Complex 39A where they entered into the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft that will take them to the International Space Station.

SpaceX also conducted a static fire test of the Falcon 9 rocket after crew members departed the launch pad.

Crew-10 is scheduled to launch to the space station at 7:48 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, March 12, for a long-duration mission.

posted 03-14-2025 07:13 PM               

NASA's SpaceX Crew-10 Launches to International Space Station

Four crew members of NASA's SpaceX Crew-10 mission launched at 7:03 p.m. EDT Friday from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a science expedition aboard the International Space Station.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket propelled the Dragon spacecraft into orbit carrying NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. The spacecraft will dock autonomously to the forward-facing port of the station's Harmony module at approximately 11:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 15. Shortly after docking, the crew will join Expedition 72/73 for a long-duration stay aboard the orbiting laboratory.

"Congratulations to our NASA and SpaceX teams on the 10th crew rotation mission under our commercial crew partnership. This milestone demonstrates NASA's continued commitment to advancing American leadership in space and driving growth in our national space economy," said NASA acting Administrator Janet Petro. "Through these missions, we are laying the foundation for future exploration, from low Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars. Our international crew will contribute to innovative science research and technology development, delivering benefits to all humanity."

During Dragon's flight, SpaceX will monitor a series of automatic spacecraft maneuvers from its mission control center in Hawthorne, California. NASA will monitor space station operations throughout the flight from the Mission Control Center at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

After docking, the crew will change out of their spacesuits and prepare cargo for offload before opening the hatch between Dragon and the space station's Harmony module around 1:05 a.m., Sunday, March 16.

The number of crew aboard the space station will increase to 11 for a short time as Crew-10 joins NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore, and Don Pettit, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Aleksandr Gorbunov, Alexey Ovchinin, and Ivan Vagner. Following a brief handover period, Hague, Williams, Wilmore, and Gorbunov will return to Earth no earlier than Wednesday, March 19. Ahead of Crew-9's departure from station, mission teams will review weather conditions at the splashdown sites off the coast of Florida.

During their mission, Crew-10 is scheduled to conduct material flammability tests to contribute to future spacecraft and facility designs. The crew will engage with students worldwide via the ISS Ham Radio program and use the program's existing hardware to test a backup lunar navigation solution. The astronauts also will serve as test subjects, with one crew member conducting an integrated study to better understand physiological and psychological changes to the human body to provide valuable insights for future deep space missions.

With this mission, NASA continues to maximize the use of the orbiting laboratory, where people have lived and worked continuously for more than 24 years, testing technologies, performing science, and developing the skills needed to operate future commercial destinations in low Earth orbit and explore farther from our home planet. Research conducted at the space station benefits people on Earth and paves the way for future long-duration missions to the Moon under NASA's Artemis campaign and beyond.

posted 03-15-2025 11:09 PM               

Dragon Endurance docks to space station

NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday (March 16), as the SpaceX Dragon, named Endurance, docked to the complex at 12:04 a.m. EDT (0404 GMT). while the space station was flying over the Atlantic Ocean.

With Dragon's link up to forward-facing port on the Harmony module, the astronauts aboard Endurance and on the station will begin conducting standard leak checks and pressurization between the spacecraft in preparation for hatch opening.

Update: The hatches were opened at 1:35 a.m. EDT (0535 GMT).