SpaceX to launch four more astronauts for NASA

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.

SpaceX developed its Crew Dragon spacecraft and fine-tuned its Falcon 9 rocket under NASA’s Commercial Crew program, which provided the company with $3.1 billion to develop the system and launch six operational missions.

Commercial Crew is a competitive program, and NASA also awarded Boeing with $4.8 billion in contracts to develop its Starliner spacecraft. Boeing’s capsule, however, remains in development due to an uncrewed flight test in December 2019 that experienced significant challenges.

Crew-3 represents the third of those six missions for SpaceX, with NASA now benefiting from the investment it made in the company’s spacecraft development.

NASA emphasizes that, in addition to the U.S. having a way to send astronauts to space, SpaceX offers the agency a cost-saving option as well. The agency expects to pay $55 million per astronaut to fly with Crew Dragon, as opposed to $86 million per astronaut to fly on a Russian spacecraft. NASA last year estimated that having two private companies compete for contracts saved the agency between $20 billion and $30 billion in development costs.

Turn to CNBC TV for the latest stock market news and analysis. From market futures to live price updates CNBC is the leader in business news worldwide.


Connect with CNBC News Online

#CNBC
#CNBCTV

[paterjo]

Space-X has really brought back inspiration, excitement, and proof of American ingenuity in the human space adventure. I am excited to see how far this company will go and hope that they will be successful with getting people to Mars!

[brettano]

Elon- "Lets make the ugliest most pretentious space suits that make people feel like we are living in the future"

[michaelmartin]

How much CO2 did this launch put into the atmosphere?
When is COP24 going stop all space projects?

[dontdoitbro]

Morgan covers space now? finally got her out of the studio where she asks the worst questions and is nothing but a face. No wonder CNBC is the clow news biz channel

[jeremywilson]

The Earth has 4 corners and there is a firmament that separates the waters above from the waters below. But help yourself believe in the “glorious power of man”.