NASA Launches Crew-5 Continuing Research aboard Space Station

By Bob Granath

A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft lifted off with a multi-national group of specialists for a six-month mission aboard the International Space Station. Ongoing research aboard the orbital laboratory is designed to benefit humans living on and off the Earth. What is learned in orbit will help NASA prepare for long-term operations on and around the Moon and eventual exploration of Mars.

NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, along with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina of Russia lifted off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 12 noon EDT on Oct. 5, 2022 from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center.

Launch of Crew-5 was delayed two days from its original date when Hurricane Ian passed through Florida on Sept. 28 and 29. On Oct. 3, NASA and contractor managers met in a Launch Readiness Review, or LRR, during which everyone was assured all was ready.

“We had a good LRR,” said Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, during a news conference following the review. “We are proceeding toward launch.”

Crew-5 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. The crew plans to dock their spacecraft to the forward port on the station’s Harmony module about 29 hours after launch.

Once aboard the space station, the Crew-5 astronauts will be welcomed inside the space station by the seven-member crew of Expedition 68 made up by NASA’s Crew-4 astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins, along with European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti of Italy. They have been living and working on the orbital lab since April 27. Also aboard will be NASA astronaut Frank Rubio with cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin who arrived on Sept. 21 aboard the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The Crew

Crew-5 commander Mann is a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps and will be making her first spaceflight. A native of Petaluma, California, she received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1999. Two years later, she earned a master’s in mechanical engineering from Stanford University with a specialty in fluid mechanics. As a Marine aviator Mann served as a test pilot in the F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet. She deployed twice aboard aircraft carriers in support of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. She was selected as an astronaut in June 2013.

Prior to the Crew-5 launch. Mann spoke of the reasons to work aboard the space station and she looked beyond.

“By exploring and learning new things we learn more not just about space and how the universe was crated,” she said. “We are better informed about what our resources are, but we also can look back and learn more about Earth and about the place that we live in now and how it’s important to take care of Earth.”

A U.S. Navy captain, Cassada was born in San Diego, California, but grew up in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. He is a physicist and a test pilot. Prior to becoming a naval aviator, Cassada earned a bachelor’s degree in physics at Albion College in Albion, Michigan. He went on to receive a doctorate at the University of Rochester, New York, conducting experimental high energy physics research at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois. Cassada is a member of the same astronaut class as Mann and Crew 5 also will be his first trip into space.

“I’m really excited about being a part of something that’s much bigger than me and working alongside some of the world’s best minds,” he said during preparations for the flight.

Wakata will be making his fifth trip to space on his third different spacecraft. He was born in Saitama, Japan. He earned a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering in 1987, a master’s in applied mechanics in 1989, and doctorate in aerospace engineering in 2004, all from Kyushu University. In 1996, he flew as the first Japanese Space Shuttle mission specialist on STS-72. In 2000, he flew on STS-92, and became the first Japanese astronaut to participate in the assembly of the International Space Station. In 2009, he was the first Japanese astronaut to complete a long-term stay on the space station. Launched aboard a Soyuz in November 2013, he served on the station for 188 days. On Expedition 39, he led the international crew as the first Japanese station commander.

Born in Novosibirsk, Russia, Kikina will be making her first trip to space. In 2006, she graduated from the Novosibirsk State Academy of Water Transport with a degree in emergency protection. Two years later, she received a second higher education degree in the specialty economics and management. Kikina was selected as a cosmonaut in 2012. As such, she took part in an international isolation experiment, which simulated a flight to the Moon during 2017.

Beginning in May 2021, Kikina, Prokopiev and Petelin, were selected for the Soyuz MS-22 crew for a stay aboard the International Space Station. However, Roscosmos and NASA agreed on what is termed cross-flights in which American astronauts will fly on Russian Soyuz spacecraft and Russian cosmonauts on American spacecraft. The agreement provides for three exchanges of cosmonauts. As part of the first of this approach, Rubio joined the Russian Soyuz MS-22 crew and Kikina was appointed to the Crew-5 mission.

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 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.

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

During the current space station expedition, Lindgren, Hines, Watkins and Cristoforetti have performed research in the station’s the Kibo laboratory module examining how skin heals in microgravity. They recorded how space-caused molecular processes that may aid in advanced wound treatments and therapies for astronauts and people on Earth. Studies also focused on how weightlessness affects the human digestive system. ultrasound scans following meals are providing data on the digestion process to improve crew health and treat Earth-bound conditions.

Before launch, the Crew-5 astronauts participated in training at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Johnson Space center in Houston, the SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, as well as traveling and to international partner agencies for system and payload briefings.

“We really focus on what they’re going to need to perform the space station mission,” said Cassie Rodriquez, Crew-5 chief training officer at Johnson. “So that’s specific to the systems they’ll be working with and tasks they will be performing.”

Crew-5 members plan to perform research to prepare for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit. The results should also provide benefits for everyday life. Heart stem cells could provide a sustainable source of cells to treat heart disease and to act as a cell source for safely testing pharmaceuticals back on Earth. Their studies also will focus on how spaceflight affects heart muscle cells derived from stem cells establishing a functional heart tissue model that mimics heart disease and can be used to test new drugs.

During the upcoming expedition, the astronauts also will test systems designed to aid NASA’s program to return humans to the Moon.

On its Artemis I mission to the Moon, NASA’s Orion spacecraft is designed to use NASA’s Near Space Network and Deep Space Network to navigate. However, if the craft loses communication with the ground or the networks, crews can use a backup autonomous navigation system known as Optical Navigation, or OpNav. This method analyzes images of the Moon or Earth taken from the spacecraft to determine its position relative to either of those two bodies.

An investigation currently underway aboard the International Space Station is helping developers of OpNav fine-tune the system to ensure that crews return home safely. The Moon Imagery investigation uses photographs of the lunar surface taken from the space station to calibrate the system software.

“The space station gives us a platform to collect images of the Moon without interference from Earth’s atmosphere,” says principal investigator Steve Lockhart at Johnson. “We can get pretty decent images from the ground, especially when the Moon is near full and high in the sky. The challenge is getting clear images of the Moon in its very thin phases.”

After about six months, the Crew Dragon Spacecraft will autonomously undock from the space station splashing down off the Florida coast. A SpaceX recovery vessel will pick up the Crew-5 astronauts and bring it back to shore.

While SpaceX Crew Dragon flights are continuing, NASA soon will have a second option for transportation to and from the International Space Station. Preparations are underway for the launch of NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test. The first CST-100 Starliner atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is targeted for an early February 2023 launch with agency astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Suni Williams. They plan to live and work on the space station for about eight days clearing the way for operational flights.

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Crew 5 Launches to Space Station

Check out this short video of the liftoff of NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, along with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina of Russia aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon launched by the company’s Falcon 9 rocket on Oct. 5, 2022. Video courtesy of NASA