The launch of Crew-2 mission

Four astronauts are sent to the International Space Station (ISS) from Florida through a collaboration program of NASA and SpaceX under the Commercial Crew Program.

• The Crew-2 mission is the second of six crewed missions NASA and SpaceX will fly as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. This mission has several firsts, including:
  • First commercial crew mission to fly two international partners
  • First commercial crew handover between astronauts on the space station as Crew-1 and Crew-2 astronauts will spend about five days together on station before Crew-1 returns to Earth
  • First reuse of the Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket on a crew mission –Crew Dragon Endeavour flew the historic Demo-2 mission and the Falcon 9 flew astronauts on the Crew-1 mission
  • First time two commercial crew spacecraft will be docked to station at the same time

What is the Crew-2 mission?

• The mission is second crew rotation of the SpaceX Crew Dragon and is first with international partners.
• It is a six-month science mission.
• Astronauts include two from NASA and two are from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the European Space Agency (ESA).
• NASA’s SpaceX Crew-2 mission consist a rocket booster that is recycled from a previous spaceflight.
• The Falcon 9 rocket used in the Crew-2 mission was used to launch the Crew-1 into orbit five months ago. This marks the first time a previously flown rocket booster is re-used in a crewed launch.
• The latest mission is the second “operational” space station team that was launched by NASA aboard a Dragon Crew capsule.
• It is also the third crewed flight which is launched into lower Earth orbit under NASA’s fledgling public-private partnership with SpaceX.

What will Crew-2 do at ISS?

• Crew-2 astronauts will join the members of Expedition 65.
• They will stay aboard the ISS for six months and will conduct science experiments in low-Earth orbit.
• Their central focus will be to continue a series of Tissue Chips in Space studies.
  • Tissue Chips are small models of human organs that contain multiple cell types that behave similarly to the human body.
  • These chips can speed up the process of identifying safe and effective drugs and vaccines.
  • Scientists will use these tissue chips in space to study diseases that affect specific human organs.
  • The main advantage is that experiments in space takes lesser times in comparison to earth.

What is the Commercial Crew Program?

• The main objective of the program is to make access to space easier in terms of its cost to carry the cargo and crew transportation easier.
• NASA also plans to lower its costs by sharing them with commercial partners by building Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS).

Conclusion

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program would open access to low-Earth orbit and the International Space Station to more people, science sector, thus increasing the scope of commercial opportunities.