SpaceX Crew-6 is the sixth crewed operational NASA

Commercial Crew The Commercial Crew Program (CCP) provides Private spaceflight, commercially-operated human spaceflight, crew transportation service to and from the International Space Station (ISS) under contract to NASA, conducting crew rotations between t ...

flight of a

Crew Dragon Dragon 2 is a class of partially reusable spacecraft developed and manufactured by American aerospace manufacturer SpaceX, primarily for flights to the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX has also launched private missions such as In ...

spacecraft, and the ninth overall crewed orbital flight. The mission launched on 2 March 2023 at 05:34:14 UTC, and it successfully docked to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest Modular design, modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos ( ...

(ISS) on 3 March 2023 at 06:40 UTC. The Crew-6 mission transported four crew members to the International Space Station (ISS). Two NASA astronauts, a

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia ( The Middle East). It is located at ...

astronaut, and a Russian cosmonaut were assigned to the mission. The two NASA astronauts are Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg. The cosmonaut,

Andrey Fedyaev Andrey Valerievich Fediaev (Russian Cyrillic: Андрей Валерьевич Федяев; born February 26, 1981) is a Russian cosmonaut. Biography Fediaev received an engineering degree in air transport and Air Traffic Control from the Bal ...

, was reassigned from

Soyuz MS-23 Soyuz MS-23 is a planned Russian uncrewed Soyuz spaceflight to launch from Baikonur on 20 February 2023 to the International Space Station, in order to replace the Soyuz MS spacecraft for landing that the three Soyuz MS-22 crew members launche ...

Sultan Al Neyadi Sultan Al Neyadi ( ar, سلطان النيادي; born May 23, 1981) is an Emirati astronaut and one of the first two astronauts from the United Arab Emirates, along with Hazza Al Mansouri. Childhood and education Sultan Al Neyadi was born in ...

is heading the Emirates' mission on the flight.

Crew

On 24 March 2022 the

European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (120 ...

announced that Danish astronaut

Andreas Mogensen Andreas Enevold Mogensen (born 2 November 1976) is a Danish engineer and ESA astronaut who is best known for being the first Dane to fly in space as part of the European Space Agency's iriss program. Mogensen has also been involved in a number of ...

will serve as backup pilot. On 29 April 2022, the

Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC; ar, مركز محمد بن راشد للفضاء, markaz Muḥammad bin Rāshid lil-faḍāʾ), is a Dubai government organisation working on the UAE space programme, which includes various space s ...

(MBRSC) and

Axiom Space Axiom Space, Inc., also known as Axiom, is an American privately funded space infrastructure developer headquartered in Houston, Texas. Founded in 2016 by Michael T. Suffredini and Kam Ghaffarian, the company first flew a spaceflight in 20 ...

announced that Crew-6 will also include an astronaut from the

. MBRSC participation in this mission resulted from a 2021 agreement between NASA and Axiom to fly a NASA astronaut,

Mark T. Vande Hei Mark Thomas Vande Hei (born November 10, 1966) is a retired United States Army officer and current NASA astronaut who has served as a flight Engineer for Expedition 53, 54, 64, 65, and 66 on the International Space Station. Early life and ...

, onboard

Soyuz MS-18 Soyuz MS-18 (spacecraft named "Y. A. Gagarin") was a Soyuz spaceflight that was launched on 9 April 2021 at 07:42:41 UTC. It transported three members of the Expedition 64 crew to the International Space Station (ISS). Soyuz MS-18 was the 146 ...

(launch) and

Soyuz MS-19 Soyuz MS-19 was a Soyuz spaceflight which launched on 5 October 2021, at 08:55:02 UTC. It was the 147th flight of a crewed Soyuz spacecraft. The launching crew consisted of Russian commander Anton Shkaplerov, Russian film director Klim Ship ...

(return) in order to ensure a continuing American presence onboard the ISS. In return, Axiom received the rights to a NASA owned seat onboard SpaceX Crew-6. Axiom provided the flight opportunity to MBRSC professional crew member through an agreement with the

United Arab Emirates Space Agency The United Arab Emirates Space Agency (UAESA) ( ar, وكالة الإمارات للفضاء translit: wikālat al-Imārāt l-lifaḍā') is the space agency of the United Arab Emirates government responsible for the development of the country ...

. Later the astronaut was confirmed to be

was selected in July 2022 for this mission as a part of the Soyuz-Dragon crew swap system of keeping at least one NASA astronaut and one Roscosmos cosmonaut on each of the crew rotation missions. This ensures both countries have a presence on the station, and the ability to maintain their separate systems if either Soyuz or commercial crew vehicles are grounded for an extended period.

Mission

The sixth SpaceX operational mission in the

Commercial Crew Program The Commercial Crew Program (CCP) provides commercially-operated crew transportation service to and from the International Space Station (ISS) under contract to NASA, conducting crew rotations between the expeditions of the International Sp ...

(CCP) was launched on 2 March 2023 and is planned to last approximately six months. The mission was scheduled to launch early on 27 February 2023. However, the initial attempt was scrubbed and rescheduled for 2 March 2023, at 5:34 am UTC. The second launch attempt was successful. Alongside Crew-6, the space capsule is designed to be able to bring back the

Soyuz MS-22 Soyuz MS-22 is a Russian Soyuz spaceflight to the International Space Station with a crew of three launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 21 September 2022. The launch was previously planned for 13 September 2022, but in the provisional flight ma ...

crew if necessary, serving as an emergency evacuation, as was Crew-5.

Roscosmos The State Space Corporation "Roscosmos" (russian: Государственная корпорация по космической деятельности «Роскосмос»), commonly known simply as Roscosmos (russian: Роскосмос) ...

elected to launch

without a crew to return the MS-22 crew instead of using this capability.

Launch attempt

The first launch attempt was scrubbed at T−02:12 minutes due to an issue with the

TEA Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and north ...

- TEB spontaneous ignition fluid. (times are UTC)

Gallery

References

{{People currently in space SpaceX Dragon 2 Spacecraft launched in 2023 SpaceX payloads contracted by NASA SpaceX human spaceflights 2023 in the United States Fully civilian crewed orbital spaceflights