Crew-6 Continues NASA Science Research Aboard the Space Station

By Bob Granath

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has launched another diverse crew of astronauts for a six-month stay aboard the International Space Station. The company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft lifted off into the pre-dawn sky from Launch Complex 39A at NASA‘s Kennedy Space Center at 12:34 a.m. EST on March 2, 2023.

NASA and SpaceX managers postponed a Feb. 27, 2023 launch attempt due to a ground systems problem that prevented data from confirming a full load of the ignition source for the rocket’s first stage engines.

The Crew-6 mission includes two NASA astronauts: mission commander Stephen Bowen and pilot Woody Hoburg. They were joined by mission specialists Sultan Alneyadi of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev of Russia. It is the sixth crew rotation flight in the agency’s Commercial Crew Program for a science expedition aboard the orbiting microgravity laboratory.

Crew-6 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.

During a pre-launch news conference, Bowen stated that their stay aboard the space station would be packed with activities.

(We will have) “opportunities for EVAs (extravehicular activities or spacewalks) the arrival of cargo vehicles and two crew vehicles coming to visit,” he said. “It’s an exciting increment and we’re going to be busy, but it’s gonna be a lot of fun.”

The Crew

A veteran of three Space Shuttle missions, Crew-6 will be Bowen’s fourth trip into space. Born in Cohasset, Massachusetts, he earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy and a master’s in ocean engineering from the Joint Program in Applied Ocean Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He was selected as an astronaut In July 2000.

Bowen flew STS-126 in 2008, STS-132 in 2010 and STS-133 in 2011, completing more than 40 days in space, including preforming seven spacewalks. As Crew-6 commander, he will be responsible for all phases of flight aboard the Crew Dragon, from launch to re-entry. Aboard the station, he will serve as an Expedition 69 flight engineer.

Selected as an astronaut in 2017, Crew-6 will be Hoburg’s first trip into space. A native of Pittsburgh, he holds a bachelor’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics from the MIT and a doctorate in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Before becoming an astronaut, Hoburg was an assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. His research focused on efficient methods for design of engineering systems. As Crew-6 pilot, he will be responsible for spacecraft systems and performance. Aboard the station, he will be an Expedition 69 flight engineer.

Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre astronaut Alneyadi will be making his first trip to space. He was born in Um Ghafa, a remote area outside Al Ain. He received a bachelor’s degree in electronics and communications engineering in 2004 at the University of Brighton in Great Britain. He then studied at Zayed Military College in Abu Dhabi for a year. Alneyadi served in the UAE Armed Forces as a communications engineer.

In 2008, Alneyadi went to Australia and earned a master’s degree in Information and Networks Security from Griffith University, where he returned in 2011 to complete a doctorate in data leakage prevention technology. Once aboard the station, he will become a flight engineer.

Fedyaev also is a first-time space traveler. He was born in Serov, Sverdlovsk, in Russia’s Ural Mountains. In 2004, he awarded an engineering degree in air transport and air traffic control from the Balashov Military Aviation School. He then joined the Russian Air Force rising to the rank of major before retiring in 2013. Fedyaev was selected as a cosmonaut in 2012.

As a mission specialist, Fedyaev will monitor the spacecraft during the Crew Dragon’s dynamic launch and re-entry phases of flight. He will be a flight engineer for Expedition 69.

The Spacecraft

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 can carry from four to seven NASA-sponsored crewmembers and return astronauts with more than 6,000 pounds of time-critical scientific research experiments and equipment.

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 launch 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 drone ship off shore named, Of Course I Still Love You.

The Mission

After docking, the Crew-6 astronauts will be welcomed aboard the station by the seven-member crew of Expedition 68. There will be a short overlap with the astronauts who flew to the station as part of the NASA’s Crew-5 mission launched Oct. 5, 2022. Return of Crew-5 with agency astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, along with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina of Russia is planned for March 2023. For Expedition 69, the four members of Crew-6 will join NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, along with Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin who launched to the space station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Soyuz MS-22 on Sept. 22, 2022.

Before the launch, Bowen spoke of the spacecraft expected to be coming and going during their mission.

“During (Expedition 69), we potentially will have two flight test (spacecraft) coming up with the Boeing vehicle followed by Axiom-2 and then at the end, the SpaceX CRS-28,” he said. “I think that’s really going to be incredibility exciting.”

He referred to the first crewed mission of the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, Axiom-2 — a privately funded crew mission – and the SpaceX CRS-28 resupply mission.

Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams spending a week aboard the International Space Station. Boeing’s Crew Flight Test (CFT) is the third orbital flight of the Starliner after the two uncrewed flight tests, OFT-1 and OFT-2. CFT scheduled for some time in April will check out end-to-end capabilities of the Starliner system prior to regular flights with crews to the space station.

Axiom-2 is scheduled to send four astronauts for a mission aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon to the International Space Station, operated by Axiom Space. The space infrastructure program is designed to send commercial astronauts to the space station with a long-term goal of engaging in in-space research, manufacturing and exploration.

SpaceX CRS-28 is a Commercial Resupply Service mission to the International Space Station scheduled to launch in June 2023.

Additionally, the Crew-6 astronauts plan to conduct more than 200 science research in preparation for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and benefiting life on Earth. Experiments during Expedition 69 include studies of how various materials burn in microgravity, tissue chip research on heart, brain and cartilage functions and a study that will collect microbial samples from the outside of the space station.

The Crew-6 astronauts plan to return to Earth in September 2023 following a similar handover with Crew-7. NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen of Denmark, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov of Russia, who are scheduled to launch from Kennedy in August 2023.

“It’s been a great honor to work with these astronauts and cosmonauts,” Bowen said. “They are an amazing team. I’m privileged to have with me and we are all looking forward to our flight.”

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Crew 6 Liftoff to the International Space Station

Check out this short video of the liftoff of NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, along with Sultan Alneyadi of the United Arab Emirates and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev of Russia aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon launched by the company’s Falcon 9 rocket on March 2, 2023. Video courtesy of NASA