Image: SpaceX
NASA and SpaceX have scheduled their Crew-5 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) to lift off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, October 3.
Our next @Commercial_Crew launch to the @Space_Station is scheduled to lift off from @NASA_Kennedy no earlier than Monday, Oct. 3.
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
— NASA (@NASA) September 23, 2022
The mission was previously delayed to September 29 in order to allow ground teams to replace an interstage on the Falcon 9 booster.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission will carry astronauts Nicole Mann (mission commander) and Josh Cassada (pilot) of NASA, astronaut Koichi Wakata (mission specialist) of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), and cosmonaut Anna Kikina (mission specialist) of Roscosmos to the ISS.
They will make the journey in the SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft and will be launched on a new Falcon 9 booster. The crew of four will join the seven-member crew of Expedition 68 and spend up to six months aboard the ISS before returning to Earth.
During their time aboard the ISS, the crew will take part in more than 200 science experiments and technology demonstrations. “Experiments will include studies on printing human organs in space, understanding fuel systems operating on the Moon, and better understanding heart disease,” said NASA.
The Crew-5 launch will mark NASA’s fifth crew rotation mission with SpaceX to the ISS. It will also be the sixth flight of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule with people as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
SpaceX’s Dragon Endurance will dock with the ISS’s Harmony module upon arrival. Astronauts from NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 mission, which launched back in April, will undock from the space station and splash down off the coast of Florida several days after Crew-5’s arrival.
NASA recently awarded SpaceX five additional crew transportation missions to and from the ISS.
