Elizabeth Howell
Thu, August 17, 2023
four astronauts in white spacesuits stand in a line. to their back is a diagram of a rocket on a white wall
A multinational crew of astronauts is ready for their journey to space.
Four astronauts from four countries will fly on SpaceX Dragon capsule to the International Space Station for a six-month mission. They will launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on SpaceX's Crew-7 flight no earlier than Aug. 25, and you can watch the whole thing live here at Space.com, via NASA Television.
"It's one of the things I think we're most proud of, is what we represent by being an all-international group," NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, who will become the second Iranian-American astronaut to reach space, told reporters during a livestreamed press conference on July 25.
"It's something that is very special and important to each of us, to represent what we can do when we work together in harmony," added Moghbeli of her three Crew-7 colleagues — European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and Konstantin Borisov of Russia's space agency, Roscosmos.
Related: SpaceX Crew-7 astronaut plans to snap aurora photos on the ISS
International cooperation in space is shifting quickly. NASA and JAXA are both signatories of the Artemis Accords for peaceful moon exploration, as are some ESA member states. The alliance currently includes 28 countries, most recently Argentina, which signed during a trip by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson to South America.
NASA's Artemis program aims to land astronauts on the moon in 2025 or 2026, pending success of the Artemis 2 crewed mission around the moon set for November 2024 and hardware development of surface spacesuits and SpaceX's Starship vehicle, which will be Artemis' first lunar lander. Over the longer haul, Artemis aims to establish a long-term human presence on and around the moon.
Russia is not a signatory to the Artemis Accords and has its own crewed moon plans with China; the two countries recently signed Venezuela into what they say will be their own international agreement. That said, NASA's relations with Russia have mostly been normal when it comes to ISS activities, and Russia has pledged to stay with the orbiting complex until at least 2028. (All other participating countries have agreed to remain until 2030.)
Such ongoing cooperation with Russia is increasingly rare; NASA, ESA and other major space players ended many of their collaborations with Russia after the nation's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. China and NASA also cannot work together much, under longstanding U.S. policy rooted in security concerns.
The Crew-7 astronauts (and their agencies) have been sending out positive partnership messages despite such issues. For example, Mogensen emphasized how well the ISS alliance has been working together throughout the 25 years the complex has been in orbit.
"One lesson that we've learned through the international partnership is how important that cooperation has has been, and how much we can actually achieve together when we work together," he said during the same press conference.
Crew-7's astronauts inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. From left: Roscosmos' Konstantin Borisov, the European Space Agency's Andreas Mogensen, NASA's Jasmin Moghbeli, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Satoshi Furukawa. (Image credit: SpaceX)
As always, the dinner table will host international meals with local flavors provided by the respective crews. Moghbeli, whose family celebrates both Christmas and Hannukah, is considering some way of bringing latkes to space, she told Space.com in an individual Zoom interview later that on July 25. She also plans to bring Persian food, but said exactly what will remain a secret for now.
Furukawa plans "steamed rice, Korean raw curry and mochi with the soft balls," he said in an individual Zoom interview. Borisov didn't provide specifics about what Russia will have for him this time, but said during the press conference that he is "just excited that there will be so much food," estimating there are at least 100 different combinations the astronauts could sample during their time in space.
For spare time activities, Borisov said in an individual interview that he would love to continue his yoga practice, but he is not sure how to achieve that in zero gravity, given most of the positions require balancing against something. Mogensen told Space.com he plans to photograph auroras and lightning for work and pleasure.
Regretfully, Furukawa said he likely won't replicate the epic Lego build that he conducted on the ISS in 2012, assembling a space station in a sealed box. "Building Lego in microgravity is very special, because you need to use special techniques to keep it in place," he said during an individual interview with Space.com. "You cannot put them on a table; you need to have kind of special Velcro, or rubber bands, to keep them in."
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Crew-7 is expected to stay about 190 days on the ISS, NASA officials said in a press conference. A Soyuz spacecraft mission will launch with its own three-person crew in mid-September for a 190-day mission, carrying Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, along with NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara.
A Russian Soyuz vehicle and one of the nation's Progress cargo spacecraft recently had sudden leaks of coolant while docked with the ISS. Both NASA and Roscosmos independently concluded that those incidents were due to something in the external environment, NASA officials said during another livestreamed briefing on July 25.
Also expected during the Crew-7 mission will be a reboost of the ISS' orbit using an already docked Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo spacecraft. This will be the third such maneuver with a Cygnus, which serves as a backup to the main reboost plan that relies upon Russian Progress spacecraft.
The ISS naturally sinks deeper into Earth's atmosphere over time due to drag from molecules of air, and the station requires these boosts to stay flying. With Russia expected to leave the ISS sooner than the other partners, NASA is working on other ways to keep the space station going after Russia's departure.
Elizabeth Howell
Tue, August 15, 2023
A graphic illustration showing an Intuitive Machines' lander on the surface of the moon with Earth in the background.
A new private moon-landing mission could launch as soon as November.
Intuitive Machines says its moon lander could be ready for liftoff as soon as Nov. 15, pending last-minute preparation. This so far positions the company to be the first private venture to safely touch down on the moon.
"Our Nova-C lander is completely built," Steve Altemus, co-founder and chief executive of Intuitive Machines, said in an earnings call Monday (Aug 15) attended by Ars Technica. "We will deliver a lunar lander ready to go in September."
The launch date on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, however, depends on the busy schedule at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Altemus acknowledged. The existing window runs through Nov. 20, with a backup opportunity in December.
Related: Intuitive Machines now targeting moon's south pole for delayed lunar landing mission
The Houston-based company's IM-1 mission is funded by the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program that aims to put science and hardware on the moon. CLPS is partly in support of the greater Artemis program that aims to land astronauts at the moon's south pole by the middle of the decade, at the earliest.
NASA asked earlier this year to move the landing location for IM-1 to the moon's south pole, instead of a more equatorial region, to put it in line with the landing zone for Artemis 3 that is planned for no earlier than 2025. IM-1's launch was delayed by several months as a result of the decision. But in the intervening time, no other private mission has yet touched down on the moon.
Related stories:
— What is Intuitive Machines and how is it aiming for the moon?
— Intuitive Machines now targeting moon's south pole for delayed lunar landing mission
— Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft sees the moon for 1st time in stunning video
The private Japanese Hakuto-R mission by ispace apparently crashed during an attempted landing in April. Another moon-landing effort using Israel's Beresheet lander by SpaceIL also failed in 2019 during that country's debut lunar surface attempt.
Another U.S. company funded by CLPS, Astrobotic, has its Peregrine landing mission on hold following delays with the new United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket set to launch it. Centaur may now fly in late 2023 with Peregrine, at the earliest.
Other landing missions are in the works with CLPS as well, but Peregrine and IM-1 appear closest to launch given recent announcements.
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