Three flags, one Dragon, and an International Space Station waiting for its next crew. NASA is already planning the next chapter of its long-running partnership with SpaceX.
The announcement came Thursday, when NASA named the four astronauts who will fly the SpaceX Crew-14 mission to the International Space Station, with liftoff targeted no earlier than spring 2027. Kayla Barron and Chris Birch, both NASA astronauts, will serve as spacecraft commander and pilot, while JAXA astronaut Makoto Suwa and Roscosmos cosmonaut Arutyun Kiviryan will fly as mission specialists.
Barron brings the only previous spaceflight experience among the crew members. The U.S. Navy commander, selected as a NASA astronaut in 2017, first flew aboard the Crew-3 mission in 2021 and spent 177 days in space during Expeditions 66 and 67. She completed two spacewalks and served as lead robotics operator during that mission.
Birch, selected as a NASA astronaut in 2021, will make her first journey to orbit. The former decorated track cyclist on the U.S. National Team earned a doctorate in biological engineering from MIT and later served as a capsule communicator and as crew lead for Expedition 72.
Crew-14 will also mark the first spaceflight assignment for both Suwa and Kiviryan. Suwa, selected as a JAXA astronaut candidate in 2023, spent nearly a decade with the World Bank Group and holds a doctorate in geosciences from Princeton University. Kiviryan, selected to the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center corps in 2021, has served as a test cosmonaut since 2023.
After docking with the station, Crew-14 will join the Expedition 75/76 crew. The mission represents the 14th commercial crew rotation with SpaceX under NASA’s Low Earth Orbit Program. During their long-duration stay, the astronauts will conduct scientific investigations and technology demonstrations designed to help prepare humans for future missions to the Moon and Mars.
NASA confirmed on its official X account that liftoff is targeted no earlier than March 2027.
The announcement follows SpaceX securing a $946 million NASA contract for three more crew flights, while the company continues preparations for the Starship Flight 14 launch on Sept. 28. SpaceX’s reuse program has also continued setting records, with a nose cone recently achieving a new reuse record of 40 flights.
First comes The Crew-13 launch, with SpaceX in final prelaunch preparations for the Oct. 1 liftoff ahead of Crew-14’s arrival next spring.
