NASA and SpaceX are preparing a new manned mission to the space station

a NASA it’s at SpaceX Preparations are being completed for the launch of the third manned space mission to the International Space Station, scheduled for October 30 with four astronauts aboard the Dragon spacecraft.

The SpaceX Crew-3 astronauts are Commander Raja Chari, pilot Tom Marshburn, NASA mission specialist Kayla Baron and German scientist Matthias Maurer of the European Space Agency (ESA), who will replace their colleagues on the previous mission.

Marshburn, 61, who has been an astronaut since 2004, told a news conference on Thursday that it would be a “critical” mission because it was the first time his three companions had traveled to space.

The crew, who will remain in the Microgravity Laboratory for six months, were delighted with the launch of the new Dragon capsule, which will be powered by a Falcon 9 rocket, and which will be added to SpaceX’s two other existing rockets, Endeavor and Elastic.

The mission is scheduled to leave at Site 02.43 (from Lisbon 07.43) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

If all goes as planned, the Dragon is expected to dock on the International Space Station in the early hours of October 31.

This mission will use a new Dragon capsule from SpaceX, which they are building another one to use starting in 2022, bringing their fleet to four.

According to Elon Musk, in this way they will double more spaceflights with Dragon capsules and Falcon 9 rockets, both of which are reusable.

The new crew will replace American astronauts from NASA, Shane Kimbrough and Megan MacArthur, as well as Japan’s Akihiko Hoshied, of JAXA, and France’s Thomas Pesquet, of the European Space Agency, who are supposed to return to Earth in mid-November. .