As a part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission, 4 crew members from three house businesses will launch within the coming months to the Worldwide House Station for a long-duration science expedition aboard the orbiting laboratory.
NASA astronauts Commander Zena Cardman and Pilot Mike Fincke, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) astronaut Mission Specialist Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Mission Specialist Oleg Platonov will be part of crew members aboard the house station no sooner than July 2025.
The flight is the eleventh crew rotation with SpaceX to the station as a part of NASA’s Industrial Crew Program. The crew will conduct scientific investigations and know-how demonstrations to assist put together people for future missions to the Moon, in addition to profit folks on Earth.
Cardman beforehand was assigned to NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission, and Fincke beforehand was assigned to NASA’s Boeing Starliner-1 mission. NASA determined to reassign the astronauts to Crew-11 in general assist of deliberate actions aboard the Worldwide House Station. Cardman carries her expertise coaching as a commander on Dragon spacecraft, and Fincke brings long-duration spaceflight expertise to this crew complement.
Chosen as a NASA astronaut in 2017, Cardman will conduct her first spaceflight. The Williamsburg, Virginia, native holds a bachelor’s diploma in Biology and a grasp’s in Marine Sciences from the College of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. On the time of choice, she had begun pursuing a doctorate in Geosciences. Cardman’s analysis in geobiology and geochemical biking targeted on subsurface environments, from caves to deep sea sediments. Since finishing preliminary coaching, Cardman has supported real-time station operations and lunar floor exploration planning.
This can be Fincke’s fourth journey to the house station, having logged 382 days in house and 9 spacewalks throughout Expedition 9 in 2004, Expedition 18 in 2008, and STS-134 in 2011, the ultimate flight of house shuttle Endeavour. All through the previous decade, Fincke has utilized his experience to NASA’s Industrial Crew Program, advancing the event and testing of the SpaceX Dragon and Boeing Starliner towards operational certification. The Emsworth, Pennsylvania, native is a distinguished graduate of the US Air Drive Take a look at Pilot College and holds bachelors’ levels from the Massachusetts Institute of Know-how, Cambridge, in each Aeronautics and Astronautics, in addition to Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. He additionally has a grasp’s diploma in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford College in California. Fincke is a retired U.S. Air Drive colonel with greater than 2,000 flight hours in additional than 30 totally different plane.
With 142 days in house, this can be Yui’s second journey to the house station. After his choice as a JAXA astronaut in 2009, Yui flew as a flight engineer for Expedition 44/45 and have become the primary Japanese astronaut to seize JAXA’s H-II Switch Car. Along with setting up a brand new experimental surroundings aboard Kibo, he carried out a complete of 21 experiments for JAXA. In November 2016, Yui was assigned as chief of the JAXA Astronaut Group. He graduated from the College of Science and Engineering on the Nationwide Protection Academy of Japan in 1992. He later joined the Air Self-Protection Drive on the Japan Protection Company (at present Ministry of Protection). In 2008, Yui joined the Air Workers Workplace on the Ministry of Protection as a lieutenant colonel.
The Crew-11 mission can be Platonov’s first spaceflight. Earlier than his choice as a cosmonaut in 2018, Platonov earned a level in Engineering from Krasnodar Air Drive Academy in Plane Operations and Air Visitors Administration. He additionally earned a bachelor’s diploma in State and Municipal Administration in 2016 from the Far Japanese Federal College in Vladivostok, Russia. Assigned as a check cosmonaut in 2021, he has expertise in piloting plane, zero gravity coaching, scuba diving, and wilderness survival.
For greater than twenty years, folks have lived and labored constantly aboard the Worldwide House Station, advancing scientific information and demonstrating new applied sciences, making analysis breakthroughs not doable on Earth. The station is a vital testbed for NASA to know and overcome the challenges of long-duration spaceflight and to increase business alternatives in low Earth orbit. As business corporations give attention to offering human house transportation providers and locations as a part of a sturdy low Earth orbit economic system, NASA’s Artemis marketing campaign is underway on the Moon, the place the company is getting ready for future human exploration of Mars.
Study extra about NASA’s Industrial Crew Program at:
https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew
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Joshua Finch / Jimi Russell
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / james.j.russell@nasa.gov
Courtney Beasley / Chelsey Ballarte
Johnson House Middle, Houston
281-483-5111
courtney.m.beasley@nasa.gov / chelsey.n.ballarte@nasa.gov
