SpaceX Crew-3 astronaut launch for NASA: What you should know

Elon Musk’s space company is set to launch the Crew-3 mission for NASA on Wednesday evening, in the fifth SpaceX crewed mission in the past 18 months.

Crew-3 is set to lift off from launchpad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 9:03 p.m. ET. The astronauts are scheduled to arrive at the International Space Station on Thursday at 7:10 p.m. ET.

“Everything looks like we’re in a good place to go fly,” SpaceX Vice President William Gerstenmaier told reporters during a prelaunch briefing.

The launch marks SpaceX’s third operational crew launch for NASA to date, and the first by the latest addition to its fleet of Crew Dragon capsules, named Endurance by the Crew-3 astronauts. The Crew-3 mission will bring the number of astronauts SpaceX has launched to 18.

NASA and SpaceX have delayed the Crew-3 launch a few times since its previous target, Oct. 30, due to bad weather in the Atlantic Ocean as well as a minor medical issue with one of the four crew members. The ocean needs to be calm in the direction the rocket is launching, in case a midflight abort leads to the capsule splashing down after liftoff. NASA declined to specify more about the medical issue, citing the astronauts’ personal privacy, but said that it was not an emergency and unrelated to the Covid-19 virus.

The Crew-3 mission will carry four astronauts, three American and one German: NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron, and European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer.

Chari, the spacecraft’s commander, was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 2017. This will be his first spaceflight. He was also chosen by NASA as one of its astronauts eligible for future Artemis lunar missions later this decade. Chari is a U.S. Air Force colonel, with more than 2,500 hours of flight time.

Marshburn, the Crew-3 pilot, was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 2004. This is Marshburn’s third spaceflight. He has also flown on the space shuttle and Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Previously Marshburn was a NASA flight surgeon.

Barron is flying as a Crew-3 mission specialist, having been selected by NASA in 2017. The launch is Barron’s first spaceflight. She graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 2010, and holds a master’s degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Cambridge.

Maurer, the latest international astronaut to fly with SpaceX, joined the European astronaut corps in 2015. This will be his first spaceflight as well.