SpaceX Crew-3
2021 American crewed spaceflight to the ISS and maiden flight of Crew Dragon Endurance
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SpaceX Crew-3 was the Crew Dragon's third NASA Commercial Crew operational flight, and its fifth overall crewed orbital flight. The mission successfully launched on November 11, 2021, at 02:03:31 UTC to the International Space Station.[5] It was the maiden flight of Crew Dragon Endurance.[6]
Endurance docked at the ISS | |
| Names | USCV-3 |
|---|---|
| Mission type | ISS crew transport |
| Operator | SpaceX |
| COSPAR ID | 2021-103A |
| SATCAT no. | 49407 |
| Mission duration | 176 days, 2 hours, 39 minutes, 52 seconds |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft | Crew Dragon Endurance |
| Spacecraft type | Crew Dragon |
| Manufacturer | SpaceX |
| Launch mass | 12,055 kg (26,577 lb)[1] |
| Crew | |
| Crew size | 4 |
| Members | |
| Expedition | Expedition 66/67 |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | November 11, 2021, 02:03:31 UTC (November 10, 9:03:31 pm EDT) |
| Rocket | Falcon 9 Block 5 B1067-2 |
| Launch site | Kennedy, LC‑39A |
| End of mission | |
| Recovered by | MV Shannon |
| Landing date | May 6, 2022, 04:43:23 UTC (12:43:23 am EDT)[2] |
| Landing site | Gulf of Mexico, near Clearwater, Florida |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric orbit |
| Regime | Low Earth orbit |
| Inclination | 51.66° |
| Docking with ISS | |
| Docking port | Harmony forward |
| Docking date | November 11, 2021, 23:32 UTC |
| Undocking date | May 5, 2022, 05:20 UTC[2][3] |
| Time docked | 174 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes |
   NASA (left),[4] SpaceX (middle), and ESA (right) mission patches .jpg) From left: Chari, Marshburn, Maurer and Barron | |
This launch brought the total number of humans who have been to space to more than 600 with Maurer (600) and Barron (601).[7]
Name
Crew Dragon capsules have been given names by their initial crews — Endeavour for the first, and Resilience for the second. On October 7, 2021, it was announced that the third capsule will be called Endurance.[8] The name honors the SpaceX and NASA teams that endured through a pandemic, building the spacecraft and training the astronauts who flew it.[9] The name also honors Endurance, the ship used by Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. The three-masted vessel sank in 1915 after being bound in ice before reaching Antarctica.[10]
Crew
German ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer was selected first for the mission in September 2020.[11][12][13] NASA astronauts Raja Chari and Thomas Marshburn were added on December 14, 2020, to the crew.[14][15] The fourth seat was left open in anticipation that a Russian cosmonaut would take the seat, marking the beginning of a barter agreement that would see NASA and Roscosmos trade seats on the Soyuz and Commercial Crew Vehicles, although in April 2021 then-acting NASA administration Steve Jurczyk said that this agreement would be unlikely to start until after Crew-3 had launched.[16] The fourth seat was assigned to Kayla Barron in May 2021.[17]
Chari is the first rookie astronaut to command a NASA space mission since the Skylab 4 crew blasted off to the Skylab space station in 1973. Gerald Carr, who had not flown in space before, led a three-man crew on an 84-day flight on the Skylab.[18] This was also the first spaceflight for Barron and Maurer.[19]
| Position | Astronaut | |
|---|---|---|
| Commander | Raja Chari, NASA Expedition 66/67 First spaceflight | |
| Pilot | Thomas Marshburn, NASA Expedition 66/67 Third and last spaceflight | |
| Mission specialist | Kayla Barron, NASA Expedition 66/67 First spaceflight | |
| Mission specialist | Matthias Maurer, ESA Expedition 66/67 First spaceflight | |
| References:[20][21][12][14][15][17] | ||
| Position | Astronaut | |
|---|---|---|
| Commander | Kjell N. Lindgren, NASA | |
| Pilot | Robert Hines, NASA | |
| Mission specialist | Samantha Cristoforetti, ESA | |
| Mission specialist | Stephanie Wilson, NASA | |
| References:[22][23][24] | ||
The first astronauts of this NASA Astronaut Group 22 (nicknamed The Turtles) to fly to space, Raja Chari and Kayla Barron on SpaceX Crew-3 took a stuffed turtle as zero-g indicator to pay a tribute to their astronaut group.[25] Additionally, to include the other crew members on board, Matthias Maurer and Tom Marshburn the turtle was named "Pfau", a German word meaning "Peacock" for Matthias Maurer, who is German, and for Tom Marshburn, who was part of NASA Astronaut Group 19 (nicknamed The Peacocks).[26]
Mission
The third SpaceX operational mission in the Commercial Crew Program was originally scheduled to launch on October 31, 2021.[27] However, it was delayed to November 3, 2021, due to unfavorable weather in the Atlantic Ocean,[28] and then further delayed to November 7, 2021, due to a minor medical issue with one of the astronauts.[29] Due to expected bad weather, it was again delayed to November 9, 2021.[30]
Due to the launch delays, NASA decided to return the astronauts from Crew-2 before Crew-3 launched, thus being the first Crew Dragon indirect handover of space station crews.[31] SpaceX Crew-2 departed the station on November 8, 2021, and splashed down on November 9, 2021. SpaceX Crew-3 mission launched from Cape Canaveral on November 11, 2021, at 02:03:31 UTC.[32]
The return of Crew-3 was delayed multiple times, from April 2022 to early May. Undocking happened on May 5 (05:20 UTC), with splashdown occurring the following day after spending 176 days in space.[33]
The European segment of the mission is called "Cosmic Kiss".[34]
Gallery
Crew-3 astronauts during dress rehearsals
Launch of Crew-3
Crew Dragon Endurance approaches the ISS
Crew-3 reenters the atmosphere
Crew Dragon Endurance on MV Shannon after splashdown
Crew-3 astronauts after splashdown
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