posted 08-03-2018 07:56 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by SkyMan1958:
In the future, will there be a commercial owner (e.g. Boeing or SpaceX) crew member aboard all the flights?

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posted 08-06-2018 02:16 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
No further details were given.

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For every mission, there is a panel that gets together and they look at both the vehicle itself that is getting you to space and then they look at the ISS. So when you're up on ISS, you're going to play various roles, whether you are the flight engineer or the commander.

The same thing is going to happen with our vehicles, whether you'll be a mission specialist, a pilot or a commander. And so those panels still have to meet and decide how they are going to divvy up the different roles.

posted 08-08-2018 01:10 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by 328KF:
Will there be new designations for the other crew or will they stick with the ISS standard?

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posted 08-08-2018 04:31 PM               

The blue and gold name tags are Navy, the blue and silver are Air Force or civilian, and the red and gold is Marine Corps.

posted 08-08-2018 08:00 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by star61:
As engineering test pilots in particular will be getting into the nitty gritty of vehicle systems...

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posted 08-09-2018 10:26 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
...shows the use of the shuttle-era commander, pilot and mission specialist titles.

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posted 01-22-2019 06:45 PM               

NASA replaces astronaut on Boeing's first Starliner crewed flight test

NASA has swapped out one of its crew members on the first piloted flight of a new commercial spacecraft.

Mike Fincke has replaced Eric Boe as a member of the maiden crew for Boeing's CST-100 Starliner capsule, targeted for launch to the International Space Station later this year.

"Boe is unable to fly due to medical reasons," NASA said in a statement released on Tuesday (Jan. 22). The space agency provided no further details.

posted 01-24-2019 01:30 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Delta7:
Suni Williams will be the first astronaut to be launched from Earth on three different types of vehicles since John Young in 1981: Shuttle, Soyuz, Atlas V.

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posted 03-31-2020 10:09 AM               

NASA Adds Shannon Walker to First Operational Crewed SpaceX Mission

NASA has assigned astronaut Shannon Walker to the first operational crewed flight of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft on a mission to the International Space Station.

Walker will join NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins and Victor Glover Jr., as well as Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), for a six-month expedition aboard the unique space laboratory.

This mission will be the first in a series of regular, rotational flights to the station following NASA's certification of the new crewed system following completion and validation of SpaceX's test flight with astronauts, known as Demo-2. This test is expected to take place in mid-to-late May as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

Pending the successful Demo-2 test, Walker, Glover, Hopkins, and Noguchi will launch aboard Crew Dragon on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. That launch is targeted for later this year.

Walker was born in Houston and began her career at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston in 1987 as a robotics flight controller for the space shuttle with Rockwell Space Operations Co. She became a NASA employee in 1995, working on robotics and avionics hardware for the station with the program's international partners. She also coordinated on-orbit problem resolution in the Mission Evaluation Room at Johnson and in Moscow and served as acting manager of the On-Orbit Engineering Office before NASA selected her for the 2004 astronaut class. As an astronaut, she spent 163 days as a flight engineer aboard the space station for Expeditions 24 and 25 in 2010. Walker earned a bachelor's degree in physics and a master's and doctorate in space physics, all from Rice University in Houston.

NASA already assigned Glover and Hopkins to the first operation SpaceX crewed mission in August 2018. This will be the first spaceflight for Glover and the second for Hopkins, who lived aboard the space station from September 2013 to March 2014 as part of Expeditions 37 and 38.

It will be the third spaceflight for Noguchi, who was a space shuttle crew member on the STS-114 mission in 2005 and a space station crew member from December 2009 to June 2010 as part of Expeditions 22 and 23.

NASA's Commercial Crew Program is working with the American aerospace industry as companies develop and operate a new generation of spacecraft and launch systems capable of carrying crews to low-Earth orbit and to the space station. Commercial transportation to and from the station will provide expanded utility, additional research time and broader opportunities for discovery on the orbital outpost.

The station is a critical testbed for NASA to understand and overcome the challenges of long-duration spaceflight. As commercial companies focus on providing human transportation services to and from low-Earth orbit, NASA is free to focus on building spacecraft and rockets for deep space missions.

posted 04-13-2020 10:01 AM               

Might there be astronauts who could eventually reach the ISS aboard both Starliner and Crew Dragon (but on different missions)?

Also, might an astronaut arrive at the ISS aboard one, but come back to Earth aboard the other?

Does the ISS now have the capability to have both a Starliner and a Crew Dragon docked simultaneously?

Are there any non-emergency scenarios that would require an Orion to dock with the ISS?

posted 04-13-2020 10:07 AM               

The space station has two configured ports (international docking adapters) that can support commercial crew vehicles, so it is possible for Starliner and Dragon to be docked at the same time, or two of one vehicle (such as having a Crew Dragon and a cargo-configured Crew Dragon).