SpaceX’s next astronaut voyage to the International Space Station (ISS) will be the sixth operational Commercial Crew Program (Crew-6) mission to the orbiting laboratory. Crew-6 will launch NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, along with United Arab Emirates (UAE) astronaut Sultan AlNeyadi, and Roscosmos Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. Bowen will serve as mission commander as a veteran astronaut who has launched to space three times on the now retired Space Shuttle. The rest of the crew has never been to space before but have been training for years to go on a space adventure. They will perform scientific research in microgravity as part of the ISS Expedition 69 mission, as well as perform maintenance tasks.

This past week, NASA set dates for the Crew-6 mission and related events leading to lift off. The agency will host a pair of news conferences on Wednesday, January 25, at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to discuss important aspects of the upcoming mission. The conferences will be livestreamed via NASA TV (video linked below) starting at 12:00 p.m. EST, followed by an astronaut interview at 2:00 p.m. EST. NASA will be taking questions from the general public on social media. To participate, simply ask your question by tagging @NASA on Twitter and using the #AskNASA hashtag. If you get lucky, agency representatives will answer your question during the live broadcast.

Crew-6 is scheduled to lift off on February 26 from historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The astronauts will ride the Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft which previously supported three missions, including SpaceX’s first-ever crewed voyage to the Space Station on May 30, 2020. The vehicle is expected to remain docked to the ISS Harmony module for six months until it's time to bring the crew back to Earth. 

Crew-6 will be welcomed by Crew-5 astronauts who are currently working at the ISS Lab. They will return to Earth around a week after Crew-6 arrives. NASA and SpaceX made it a tradition to have a ‘Welcoming Ceremony’ to give the Station’s symbolic keys to the next crew. The United States reemerged as a space power with human spaceflight capabilities thanks to SpaceX, American astronauts were dependent on Russian spacecraft for roughly a decade. Read the previous TESMANIAN story: NASA Astronauts add a fifth seat to SpaceX Dragon to 'provide lifeboat capabilities' at the Space Station after Russia Soyuz coolant leak

VIDEO: NASA TV LIVESTREAM

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Featured Image Source: NASA / SpaceX