SpaceX will launch another historic astronaut mission this Wednesday

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft are returning to the launch pad, kicking off SpaceX’s second astronaut mission in just a month.

On board will be four professional astronauts destined for the International Space Station (ISS), including the first black woman to join the ISS crew.

This mission, called Crew-4, will mark a return to the manned launches SpaceX carries out in partnership with NASA after the company completed the first fully private mission to the space station for wealthy paying customers on Monday.

Crew-4 is scheduled to take off in the early hours of this Wednesday morning (27) – at 4:52 am (Brasília time), to be exact – before arriving at the ISS around 9 pm on the same day.

Aboard Crew-4 will be NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren (who will command the mission), Robert Hines and Jessica Watkins, and Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, who is flying on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA).

The turnaround of less than 40 hours between the completion of SpaceX’s completely private mission, called AX-1, and the launch of Crew-4 is unprecedented for the company.

NASA’s human spaceflight leader Kathy Leuders said during a press conference on Tuesday that security teams recognized they needed to take things “one step at a time.”

“This is the time when you need to rest and get ready to fly and still look at the hardware and make sure you’re making the right decision,” Leuders said.

Here’s everything you need to know about Crew-4.

What makes this flight historic?

Watkins will become the first black woman to complete such a mission.

Although more than a dozen black Americans — including four black women — have traveled into space since Guion Bluford became the first to do so in 1983, no black woman has had the opportunity to live and work in space for an extended period. , as the ISS has allowed more than 200 astronauts to do so since 2000.

“This is certainly an important milestone, I think, for both our agency and [espacial] and for the country,” Watkins said during a press conference last month.

“I think it’s really just a tribute to the legacy of the black female astronauts who came before me, as well as the exciting future that lies ahead.”

She has a long history with NASA, having started her career there as an intern, and previously held positions at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, and at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, where she worked with the Curiosity rover from Mars. A trained geologist, she studied the surface of the red planet.

Watkins’ crewmates refer to her by the nickname “Watty“.

Who else is on this mission?

The crew on this mission is among the first to include as many women as men. Cristoforetti, who previously traveled to the ISS in 2014, is also the only woman in the ESA astronaut corps. But Cristoforetti told reporters last month that the situation “was about to end very soon.”

“We definitely hope to have some great female colleagues [ESA] until the end of the year”, he added.

Cristoforetti, an Italian Air Force veteran who earned her fighter pilot wings, joined ESA in 2009.

Hines is a 22-year veteran of the US Air Force, and this will mark his first trip to space since he was selected to the NASA astronaut corps in 2017.

Lindgren, who will lead this mission, is certified in emergency medicine and used to work as a ground flight surgeon at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, supporting other astronaut missions.

Lindgren was born in Taiwan and spent much of his childhood in England before moving to the United States and attending the US Air Force Academy.

The four astronauts spent months training together and even had time to make some extracurricular bonding.

Watkins noted that they took a kayaking trip to eastern Washington “just to spend some time getting to know each other and understanding how we all work… and what makes each of us tick, and I think that’s going to be really crucial.”

“We get along very well. It’s a joy to have these people on this team,” added Lindgren.

How do they go to space?

The crew will travel to the ISS aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, which will mark the seventh manned mission since entering service in 2020.

Although SpaceX designed Crew Dragon to be reusable and three capsules are already in service, Crew-4 will fly aboard a new spacecraft.

Astronauts choose the name of their capsule, and that group chose Crew Dragon “Freedom”.

Crew Dragon was developed by SpaceX under a $2.6 billion contract with NASA as part of the “Commercial Crew Program”.

The idea behind the program was to turn NASA into a customer role — allowing private companies to design, build and test a new spacecraft to serve the agency’s astronauts while still giving the company ownership of the vehicle.

Because SpaceX controls the vehicle, it has the ability to sell seats to anyone it wants, hence the entirely private mission the company just completed and a previous space tourism mission last September.

NASA has called the program a huge success, and the space agency is adopting the same contracting method for several vehicles involved in its efforts to explore the moon.

What will they do in space?

After arriving Wednesday night, the crew will be greeted by the group of astronauts already aboard the ISS – including three NASA astronauts and an ESA astronaut who were part of SpaceX’s Crew-3 mission – and three Russian cosmonauts.

There will be a five-day transfer period during which Crew-3 astronauts will help Crew-4 astronauts settle in, before Crew-3 returns home aboard its own SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.

Next, Crew-4 astronauts will start working on all the science experiments and space station maintenance tasks they have on their list.

“Experiments will include studies on aging of the immune system, concrete alternatives from organic material, and cardiorespiratory effects during and after long-term exposure to microgravity,” according to NASA.

“These are just a few of the more than 200 science experiments and technology demonstrations that will take place during the mission.”

Crew-3 is scheduled to return from space in September, shortly after SpaceX launched its Crew-5 mission.

*With information from Megan Marples of CNN