Crew-3 Mission Continues NASA, SpaceX Rotation to Space Station

November 10, 2021

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft atop is photographed at sunset at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center as preparations continue for the Crew-3. — A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft atop is photographed at sunset at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center as preparations continue for the Crew-3 mission. Photo credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

By Bob Granath

Another diverse crew of astronauts has launched from NASA‘s Kennedy Space Center for an extended stay aboard the International Space Station. A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft streaked into the night sky atop the company’s Falcon 9 rocket at 9:03 p.m. EST on Nov. 10, 2021 from Launch Complex 39A at the Florida Spaceport.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifts off in the nighttime darkness at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The Crew 3 astronauts include three from NASA and a German representing European Space Agency for a six-month stay aboard the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

During a pre-launch news conference, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson spoke of value of the International Space Station as a microgravity laboratory in space.

“The space station is a living example of how we have moved research, development and manufacturing off the Earth’s surface,” he said. “It’s going to be a great mission.”

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Manager, Joel Montalbano, pointed out some of the flight’s objectives during a recent news conference.

The astronauts of Crew-3 pose in front of their Crew Dragon in a SpaceX facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. From the left are European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer of Germany, along with NASA astronauts Tom Marshburn, Raja Chari and Kayla Barron. Photo credit: SpaceX/Ben Cooper

“This mission will carry about 400 pounds of cargo to the International Space Station,” he said. “In addition to the NASA astronauts we’re excited to have another European Space Agency astronaut lunched on a U.S. vehicle and stay for the duration of the increment.”

European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Matthias Maurer of Germany is making his first trip into space. He is joined by NASA astronauts Raja Chari, mission commander, Tom Mashburn, as pilot, and Kayla Barron, a mission specialist.

Crew-3 continues the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, a collaboration with industry to provide safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to and from the space station. The orbiting outpost remains the springboard for exploration beyond low-Earth orbit including future missions to the Moon and Mars.

The Crew

*Crew 3 commander Raja Chari checks Crew Dragon instrumentation during a flight simulation on Aug. 30, 2021 at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorns, California. Photo credit: SpaceX*

A colonel in the U.S. Air Force, Chari also will be making his first spaceflight. Born in Milwaukee, he considers Cedar Falls, Iowa, as his hometown. Chari earned a bachelor’s degree in astronautical engineering from the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado and a master’s in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Following extensive experience as an Air Force test pilot, he was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2017.

During a pre-flight news conference on Oct. 7, 2021, Chari, spoke of the fact that his crew will be traveling in a new SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule named Endurance.

“It’s a tribute to the tenacity of the human spirit as we push humans and machines farther,” he said. “It’s also a nod to the development teams, production teams and the training teams that got us here enduring through the (Covid-19) pandemic.”

*On May 18, 2021, Tom Marshburn is seen during preflight training at the SpaceX facility in Hawthorne, California. Photo credit: SpaceX*

Marshburn is a native Statesville, North Carolina and is making his third flight into space. He was a mission specialist on STS-127 in 2009 and a flight engineer on Expedition 34/35 to the International Space Station, launching aboard Soyuz TMA-07M in 2012. Having launched on Crew 3, he has flown aboard three different spacecraft — NASA’s Space Shuttle, Russia’s Soyuz and the SpaceX Crew Dragon.

Mashburn was awarded a bachelor’s degree in physics from Davidson College, North Carolina, in 1982, and a masters in engineering physics from the University of Virginia in 1984. He went on to earn a doctorate of medicine degree from Wake Forest University in 1989.

“As always, there is going to be a really robust collection of science that we’ll be executing through our entire mission,” Mashburn said. “That’s going to peak in December when a SpaceX (resupply) Dragon arrives with a full complement of experiments.”

NASA astronaut Kayla Barron gives a thumb’s up prior to taking off in T-38 jet as part of training on Sept. 17, 2020 at Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Photo Credit: NASA

A lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy, Barron was born in Pocatello, Idaho, but considers Richland, Washington, to be her hometown. She was awarded a bachelor’s degree in systems engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, in 2010, and went on to earn a master’s in nuclear engineering from the University of Cambridge, in England, in 2011. When she was selected as an astronaut in 2017, Barron was serving as an aide to the superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy. Crew-3 will be her first spaceflight.

“We couldn’t be more excited about joining the crew of Expedition 66,” Barron said. “We have a lot planned from spacewalks to science experiments to visitors with the private astronaut missions. It’s kind of a dream mission for a rookie flyer.”

Planned for February 2022, the Axiom-1 privately funded mission will include a crew of four living aboard the U.S. segment of the International Space Station for approximately eight days, participating in research and philanthropic projects.

European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer of Germany is suited up for spacewalk training is the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center. — *European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer of Germany is suited up for spacewalk training is the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Photo credit: ESA*

Maurer comes from Sankt Wendel, Germany. He studied materials science and technology at Saarland University in Germany, the University of Leeds, in the United Kingdom and the European School for Materials Technology in Nancy, France. In 2004, Matthias graduated with a doctorate in materials science engineering from the Institute of Materials Sciences of the Technical University of Aachen, Germany. Before becoming an astronaut, Maurer held a number of engineering and research roles, both in a university setting and at ESA.

“We have around 300 to 350 experiments,” he said. “These range from materials science engineering to life sciences, technological demonstrations that will enable us to do the next step from low-Earth orbit to exploration to the Moon.”

The Spacecraft

The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft for the Crew 3 mission arrives at the company’s facility at the Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A on Oct. 24, 2021. It will be mated to its Falcon 9 rocket that will boost it and the crew to the International Space Station. Photo credit: SpaceX/Ben Cooper

The SpaceX Crew Dragon is an autonomous spacecraft designed to deliver a mix of crew and cargo to low-Earth orbit. The capsule is 27 feet high and 13 feet in diameter. For NASA trips to the International Space Station, the Crew Dragon will carry from four to seven NASA-sponsored crewmembers and return astronauts with about 6,600 pounds of time-critical scientific research experiments and equipment.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft is raised into position on Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for the Crew-3 mission. — A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft is raised into position on Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for the Crew-3 mission. Photo credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

The capsule’s trunk is an integral element of the spacecraft, containing solar panels, heat-removal radiators, and fins to provide aerodynamic stability in the unlikely event of an emergency abort.

The Falcon 9 launch vehicle is 229 feet tall and is 12 feet in diameter. The first stage has nine engines generating 1,710,000 pounds of thrust. The second stage has one engine with 210,000 pounds of thrust. Propellant for both stages are RP-1, highly refined kerosene, and liquid oxygen. Like the Crew Dragon spacecraft, the first stage of the rocket is reusable. The Falcon 9 first stage returns to either a landing pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station or a SpaceX ship off shore named, Of Course I Still Love You.

The Mission

“We’ll dock with the space station about 22 hours after we launch,” Chari said.

On March 4, 2021, Crew-3 astronauts, from left, Kayla Barron, Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn and Matthias Maurer participate in a training session at the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility at NASA's Johnson Space Center. — On March 4, 2021, Crew-3 astronauts, from left, Kayla Barron, Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn and Matthias Maurer participate in a training session at the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Photo credit: NASA

When the Crew 3 astronauts arrive, they will deliver more than 400 pounds of supplies and hardware, including over 150 pounds of equipment needed to conduct experiments during their stay on the space station.

The new crew arrived shortly after the return of four astronauts who flew to the station as part of the agency’s Crew-2 mission launched on April 23, 2021. NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet of France, splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico off Pensacola, Florida on the evening of Nov. 8, 2021.

As part of the Expedition 66 crew, Chari, Marshburn, Barron and Maurer will join NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov of Russia.

Missions teams also are targeting no earlier than April 2022, for the launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 mission to the space station for a six-month science mission aboard the microgravity laboratory.

Crew-3 astronauts are set to return to Earth in late April 2022 following a handover with Crew-4 astronauts Kjell Lindgren and Bob Hines of NASA along with ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti of Italy. The fourth crewmember will be named later.

Crew-3 Launches to Space Station

Check out this short video of the liftoff of astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Mashburn, Kayla Barron and Matthias Maurer aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon launched by the company’s Falcon 9 rocket on Nov. 10, 2021. Video courtesy of NASA