NASA & SpaceX to Launch Four Astronauts to ISS Under Crew-8 Mission on February 22

NASA said that its next crewed mission to International Space Station (ISS) is targeted for launch no earlier than February 22. Four astronauts will embark on a six-month-long mission to space station on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida as part of Crew-8 mission. .

Crew-8 includes Matw Dominick as mission commander, Michael Barratt as pilot, Jeanette Epps as mission specialist (all three from NASA) and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, also a mission specialist.

Earlier on January 18, four astronauts completed ir launch day rehearsals and familiarised mselves with Dragon spacecraft. se astronauts will replace those of Crew-7 who launched to ISS in August 2023. This would be ninth crewed mission of NASA which is being launched by SpaceX since it received certification from agency in 2020 after Demo-2 mission.

According to NASA, Crew-8 will fly to ISS in Dragon spacecraft which is being refurbished for fifth time. spacecraft has previously supported Demo-2, Crew-2, and Crew-6 and Axiom Space’s Axiom Mission 1 flights to and from ISS.

"SpaceX recently completed Dragon’s propulsion system checkouts at company’s processing facility in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Teams soon will stack Dragon on its trunk ahe of transporting spacecraft to SpaceX’s hangar at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for integration with rocket," NASA said in an official statement.

In dition to Dragon, SpaceX will also use a brand new Falcon 9 booster for Crew-8. With its stage testing complete, booster will soon undergo final assembly before being rolled out to Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center.