What are SpaceX’s plans for the upcoming Crew-6 mission to the International Space Station?
SpaceX is currently in the process of launching its sixth crewed mission for NASA, as part of the commercial crew program. This mission of SpaceX and four astronauts, namely Shane Kimbrough, Megan McArthur, Akihiko Hoshide and Thomas Pesquet, is scheduled to take off on April 23, 2021.
Background
This mission will be the second SpaceX mission to the International Space Station that brings a team of four astronauts. It follows the five earlier astronauts – Victor Glover, Michael Hopkins, Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, Sr and John Kasuse – in SpaceX’s Crew-1 mission.
The mission represents a major milestone for NASA and its astronauts, as it highlights the completion of a round-trip mission to and from the ISS, with SpaceX sending its first crew back home to Earth.
Updates
Since the Crew-1 mission, SpaceX has made several updates that will affect the Crew 6 mission.
The SpaceX Crew Dragon, the spacecraft carrying the astronauts, will be modified so that it can fly for up to 210 days instead of the original 30-day limit. This will give astronauts more time to complete their tasks on the ISS and also a chance to travel back home safely.
Another major update is the installation of new solar arrays on the Crew Dragon that will provide increased power to the spacecraft while in orbit. The new arrays will also be more efficient, reducing the need to recharge the Crew Dragon with the Space Station’s batteries.
What to expect?
The Crew 6 mission will be full of interesting experiments, observations and research. Astronauts will conduct experiments in microgravity, study plant growth, as well as observe Earth from space.
The mission is expected to last around six months, with the astronauts set to return to Earth in early October 2021.
Conclusion
The Crew-6 mission marks the beginning of a new era for SpaceX and NASA, and is a major milestone for the commercial space industry. It will give astronauts more opportunities to conduct research and experiments in space, allowing us to better explore the universe we live in.
SpaceX is referring to its sixth astronaut mission as Crew-6, with four astronauts heading to the International Space Station (ISS). This follows the mission of the first crew of four astronauts – Robert Behnken and Douglus Hurley, and the second crew of three astronauts – Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker – who launched in Novmber 2020 and December 2020, respectively. This third mission will be SpaceX’s most ambitious mission yet and is expected to launch in late 2021.
The Crew-6 mission will include three American astronauts and one Japanese astronaut: NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, EU astronaut Thomas Pesquet, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide. The astronauts will be flying onboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft and will be launching from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. They will arrive at the ISS within 24 hours, spend roughly six months conducting research and performing extravehicular activities, and return in the spring of 2022.
As part of the Crew-6 mission, the astronauts will conduct a variety of research, including studies of the formation of magnetic fields and plasma, materials science experiments on crystals grown in microgravity, and biomedical studies to assess how astronaut health is affected by long-duration space exploration. The team will also perform a variety of extravehicular activities, such as spacewalks, to test and install new components to upgrade the orbiting laboratory.
SpaceX is making history with its unprecedented missions, breaking boundaries and leading the way to a new era of exploration. With the Crew-6 mission, SpaceX is taking the commercialization of space exploration to the next level and setting the stage for further collaboration with international and private partners in the future.