80% favorable weather forecast for the Halloween launch of the Crew-3 mission, the third manned operational mission for the SpaceX Crew Dragon: departure from Cape Canaveral with the Falcon-9 rocket is scheduled for Sunday at 8:21 am (Italian time). On board, four astronauts headed to the International Space Station (ISS) for a six-month mission: Commander Raja Chari, pilot Tom Marshburn, mission specialist Kayla Barron and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Matthias Maurer. The German, on his first mission on the ISS, will be the protagonist of various scientific experiments including the Italian 'Nutriss',conducted by the University of Trieste with the support of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to monitor muscle metabolism in microgravity and counteract the loss of lean mass through dietary control.
The goal is to define a nutritional protocol for long-lasting space missions, with possible repercussions also for the management of elderly, obese or malnourished patients immobilized on Earth. The first phase of the experiment had already been carried out by ASI and ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano on the occasion of the Beyond mission, between July 2019 and February 2020: after Maurer's experience it will continue with the mission of Samantha Cristoforetti, which will fly with the Crew-4 in spring 2022.
The Crew-3 mission departing at 8.31 am Italian on 31 October is the first to fly on a brand new and never used before Crew Dragon shuttle: the crew wanted to call it 'Endurance', after the historic ship used by explorer Ernest Shackleton in Antarctica. The name is intended to be a tribute to the tenacity of the human spirit in space exploration, but it also intends to recognize the commitment of the development team that worked on the capsule during the pandemic.
The Crew Dragon 'Endurance' will take 22 hours to reach the Space Station: the automated docking to the Harmony module is scheduled for Monday 1 November at 6:10 am (Italian time).
The astronauts will be welcomed aboard by colleagues from Expedition 66, including the protagonists of the previous Crew-2 mission who will return to Earth in early November with the Crew Dragon Endeavor.
In the six months of activity in orbit, the astronauts of the Crew-3 will be engaged in many activities, such as spacewalks for the maintenance of the solar panels of the ISS and scientific experiments of all kinds, ranging from the production of optical fibers in microgravity conditions to cultivation of plants without soil, suspended in water (hydroponics) or air (aeroponics).
In the coming months, the ISS astronauts will also welcome new space tourists, such as the Japanese who will arrive with the Soyuz at the end of 2021, and the first private Axiom mission scheduled for February.