A few hours ago, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft blasted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in its Crew-8 or SpaceX Crew-8 mission. After almost exactly twelve minutes, it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage and went en route to carry out its mission. This is the 8th crewed mission of the Crew Dragon spacecraft within the normal rotation of the International Space Station crew. This is also the 5th mission for the Endeavour, a new record. The fact that the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage is new is almost more newsworthy.
The four new members of the International Space Station crew, who are added to the Expedition 70 crew, are:
Matthew Stuart Dominick. Born on December 17, 1981, in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, USA, he graduated in electrical engineering from the University of San Diego and later became an officer in the US Navy. He served as a Naval Aviator and test pilot. He was selected as an astronaut candidate in 2017. He’s on his first space mission.
Michael Reed Barratt. Born on April 6, 1959, in Vancouver, Washington, USA, he earned a bachelor’s degree in zoology from the University of Washington in 1981 and a medical degree from Northwestern University in 1985, also obtaining a master’s degree in aerospace medicine from Wright State University. He began working for NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in 1991 as a physician for various space missions. He was selected as an astronaut candidate in 2000. In 2004 he participated in the NEEMO 7 submarine mission and in 2013 in ESA’s CAVES mission. He already served on the International Space Station as part of Expedition 19/20 between March and October 2009. He also participated in the STS-133 mission as part of the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery.
Jeanette Jo Epps. Born on November 3, 1970, in Syracuse, New York, USA, she earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from LeMoyne College in 1992 and a master’s degree and doctorate in space engineering from the University of Maryland in 1994 and 2000. She worked in commercial scientific research and for a few years for the CIA. She was selected as an astronaut candidate in 2009. In 2011 she participated in the NEEMO 18 submarine mission and in 2019 in ESA’s CAVES mission. She’s on her first space mission.
Alexander Sergeyevich Grebenkin. Born on July 15, 1982, in Myski, in the then USSR and today in Russia, he graduated from the Irkutsk Military Aerospace Engineering Institute. In 2011 he graduated from the Moscow Technical University of Communications and Informatics in the specialty “Radio communications, Broadcasting and Television. After working as an engineer, he was selected as a cosmonaut candidate in 2018. He’s on his first space mission.
Tomorrow, at around 8.00 UTC, the Crew Dragon Endeavour will reach the International Space Station and will dock directly with the Harmony module. Despite the problems between the USA and Russia, a cosmonaut is traveling again on the Crew Dragon, and that’s good.
