On Monday, September 4th, the members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission made a successful splashdown off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida after spending 186 days in orbit. The crew members included NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alenyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.
This mission was a part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, with the overall goal of the program being safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to and from the ISS (International Space Station). The crew logged nearly 79 million miles collecting information about Earth’s orbit and microgravity, among other things in order to help NASA prepare for future human exploration of the moon and Mars.
Throughout their 2.976 orbits around Earth, the crew aided with hundreds of experiments and technology demonstrations, including studying plant genetic adaptations to space, a student robotics challenge, and the monitoring of human health in microgravity. They also released Saskatchewan’s first satellite, which tests a new radiation detection and protection system coming from melanin, according to NASA.
For most of the crew, this was their very first spaceflight. Bowen was the only one with experience, logging 227 days over 4 flights. Along with experiments, they also completed multiple spacewalks. Sultan Alenyadi became the first UAE astronaut to conduct a spacewalk, and Bowen tied the record for most excursions by a U.S. astronaut, having completed 10 throughout all his missions.
On Saturday, August 26th, approximately 5 and a half months after Crew-6, Crew-7 was launched to the ISS. Holding four crew members representing four different countries, they plan to continue research and experiments in preparation for low Earth orbit exploration. The crew members are NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, JAXA (Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and Roscosmos Cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov.
They are expected to conduct some 200 experiments for the betterment of life on Earth, and NASA administrator Bill Nelson stated on the NASA website, “Crew-7 is a shining example of the power of both American ingenuity and what we can accomplish when we work together.”
