NASA, Japan Add 2 Astronauts To SpaceX’s First Official Human Spaceflight

NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (NASA) has added two crew members to SpaceX’s first official human spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS). The upcoming mission will be carried out through the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft.

SpaceX’s flight to the ISS is part of the company’s partnership with NASA to provide commercial spaceflight services. In March last year, the company successfully deployed the Crew Dragon on an uncrewed test flight to the ISS.

SpaceX’s official mission to the ISS will be spearheaded by NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins and Victor Glover Jr. Recently, it was announced that the crew list for the mission had been completed with the addition of two other astronauts from NASA and JAXA. These astronauts have been identified as Shannon Walker of NASA and Soichi Noguchi from Japan, Space.com reported.

It is not yet clear when SpaceX will launch its first official human mission to the ISS. But, it will take place after the company launches its crewed test flight to the massive space station sometime in May. For this mission, dubbed as Demo-2, astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will be ferried to and from the ISS using the Crew Dragon.

In preparation for the upcoming mission, teams from NASA and SpaceX recently joined together to carry out flight simulations with Behnken and Hurley. The tests were carried out at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and SpaceX’s Mission Control in California.

The two astronauts were subjected to simulations of various phases of the mission as well as procedures that will be carried out inside the spacecraft. A realistic simulation of the Crew Dragon vessel was also used during the event.

According to Michael Hess, the manager of Operations Integration for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, the simulated events were carefully selected in order to test the decision-making skills of the astronauts and other team members involved in the mission.

“The simulations were a great opportunity to practice procedures and to coordinate decision-making for the mission management team, especially with respect to weather,” Hess said in a statement. “Simulation supervisors do a great job at picking cases that really make the team think and discuss.”