Stamattina (ora italiana, 9:27 CEST) quattro astronauti sono partiti dal
centro spaziale Kennedy in Florida, diretti alla Stazione Spaziale
Internazionale, a bordo di una capsula Crew Dragon (la
Endurance) lanciata da un vettore Falcon 9 di SpaceX. Il primo
stadio del vettore è tornato al punto di lancio ed è atterrato sulla
terraferma alla vicina base spaziale militare di Cape Canaveral.
I quattro astronauti sono Jasmin Moghbeli (NASA, comandante), Andreas Mogensen
(ESA, pilota), Satoshi Furukawa (JAXA, specialista di missione) e Konstantin
Borisov (Roscosmos, specialista di missione). Mogensen è il primo astronauta
europeo a ricoprire il ruolo di pilota di una Crew Dragon. Questi sono
i loro profili, riportati dal comunicato stampa NASA (in inglese):
This is Moghbeli’s first trip into space since her selection as a NASA
astronaut in 2017. The New York native earned a bachelor’s degree in
aerospace engineering with information technology at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology in Cambridge, and a Master of Science in aerospace
engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.
Moghbeli, a helicopter and Marine Corps test pilot, has more than 150 combat
missions and 2,000 hours of flight time in over 25 different aircraft. She
also is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in Patuxent River,
Maryland. As mission commander, she is responsible for all phases of flight,
from launch to re-entry. She will serve as an Expedition 69/70 flight
engineer aboard the station. Follow @astrojaws on X.Mogensen was selected as an ESA astronaut in 2009 and became the first
Danish citizen in space after launching aboard a Soyuz for a 10-day mission
to the space station in 2015. Mogensen is from Copenhagen, Denmark. He
completed undergraduate studies and received a master’s degree in
aeronautical engineering from Imperial College London in England before
gaining his doctorate in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas
at Austin. Mogensen has since served as a crew member for NASA Extreme
Environment Mission Operations undersea missions 17 and 19. Mogensen was the
European astronaut liaison officer at NASA Johnson from 2016 to 2022,
working as a capsule communicator for astronauts aboard the station and as
ground support for spacewalks. As the pilot on Crew-7, he is responsible for
spacecraft systems and performance aboard the station, he will serve as an
Expedition 69 flight engineer and Expedition 70 commander. Follow
@astro_andreas on X.Furukawa is making his second trip to space, having spent 165 days aboard
the space station as part of Expeditions 28 and 29 in 2011. Furukawa is from
Kanagawa, Japan, and was selected as a JAXA astronaut in 1999. He is a
physician and received his medical degree from the University of Tokyo, and
later a doctorate in medical science from the same university. Furukawa
served as a crew member on the 13th NEEMO mission, and later, was appointed
head of JAXA’s Space Biomedical Research Group. Aboard the station, he will
become a flight engineer for Expedition 69/70. Follow @astro_satoshi on X.Borisov is making his first trip to space and will serve as a mission
specialist, working to monitor the spacecraft during the dynamic launch and
entry phases of flight. He entered the Roscosmos Cosmonaut Corps as a test
cosmonaut candidate in 2018 and will serve as a flight engineer for
Expedition 69/70.
Il numero di persone presenti nello spazio è ora 14. Bowen, Hoburg,
Alneyadi e Fedyaev torneranno sulla Terra tra qualche giorno.
Crew Dragon e Stazione Spaziale Internazionale (4+7)
Jasmin Moghbeli (NASA) (dal 2023/08/26)
Andreas Mogensen (ESA) (dal 2023/08/26)
Satoshi Furukawa (JAXA) (dal 2023/08/26)
Konstantin Borisov (Roscosmos) (dal 2023/08/26)
Francisco Rubio (NASA) (dal 2022/09/21)
Sergei Prokopyev (Roscosmos) (dal 2022/09/21, attuale comandante della
Stazione)
Dmitri Petelin (Roscosmos) (dal 2022/09/21)
Stephen Bowen (NASA) (dal 2023/03/02)
Warren Hoburg (NASA) (dal 2023/03/02)
Sultan Alneyadi (UAE) (dal 2023/03/02)
Andrey Fedyaev (Roscosmos) (dal 2023/03/02)
Stazione Nazionale Cinese (3)
Jing Haipeng (dal 2023/05/30)
Zhu Yangzhu (dal 2023/05/30)
Gui Haichao (dal 2023/05/30)
Fonti aggiuntive: Whoisinspace.com.