Fourth Crew Rotation : NASA’s SpaceX
SpaceX and NASA are gearing up to launch astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the Commercial Crew Program of NASA.
- This will be the fourth crew rotation mission and will be carrying an international crew consisting of four astronauts on a science expedition to the ISS.
- This mission will be launched on 20th April from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A.
- The Kennedy Space Center is located in Florida.
- The crew that will be sent aboard the ISS will be spending several months conducting various maintenance and science aboard the orbiting space station.
- The astronauts will be returning to Earth in the fall of 2022.
- The crew will be riding on a new Crew Dragon spacecraft and will be launched on a Falcon 9 booster.
- As a tradition of naming a new capsule by the first riding astronauts, the crew chose the name “Freedom” to celebrate the fundamental human right.
- After docking at the space station, the Crew-4 astronauts will be welcomed by Expedition 67’s seven-member crew.
- Several days after Crew-4’s arrival the astronauts of the Crew-3 mission will be undocking from the ISS and will splash down off Florida’s coast.
- The crew consists of NASA astronauts Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, and Jessica Watkins, along with Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency. The commander of the Crew-4 mission and the Crew Dragon spacecraft is Lindgren.
