NASA To Launch 10th Crew Dragon Mission In February 2025

NASA astronauts, JAXA, and Roscosmos for the Crew-10 mission (photo: dock. NASA)

JAKARTA Four Dragon crew members for the Crew-9 mission have not been delivered to the International Space Station (ISS), but NASA has already selected four other crew members to prepare for the Crew-10 mission. On this Crew Dragon mission, NASA includes astronauts from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the Russian Space Aviation Agency (Roscosmos). Two other selected astronauts are indeed working for NASA. The four astronauts who will fly to the ISS are NASA Astronaut Anne McClain as commander and Nichole Ayers as pilots, JAXA Astronaut Takuya Onishi as mission specialists, as well as cosmonaut Roscosmos Kirill Peskov as mission specialist. Crew-10 is targeted to launch to the ISS no more than February next year. The four crews will join the astronauts who have settled on the ISS for several months to work on various scientific studies. "While on board, the international crew will carry out scientific investigations and demonstrations of technology to help prepare humans for upcoming missions and benefit humans on Earth," NASA said, quoted from its official website.

NASA has not explained what scientific research astronauts and demonstrations will do. The US space agency simply said that the mission on the ISS was very important. For decades, NASA has continued to send astronauts to floating laboratories in Earth orbit to advance scientific science and create new technologies. All breakthroughs astronauts are working on are an impossible task on Earth. "This station is an important testbed for NASA to understand and address the challenges of long-term spaceflight and expand commercial opportunities in low-Earth orbit," NASA explained.