Nasa sends SpaceX Crew-7 to International Space Station for exploration

The crew will conduct more than 200 science experiments and technology demonstrations preparing for missions to the moon, mars and beyond, says Nasa administrator

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) launched its SpaceX crew-7 on Saturday, August 26, at 3.27 a.m. EDT from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 

The mission comprises an international crew of four representing four countries successfully launched to the International Space Station. This is Nasa's seventh commercial crew rotation mission. 

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the Dragon spacecraft into orbit for a science expedition with Nasa's Jasmin Moghbeli, European Space Agency's Andreas Mogensen, Japan Aerospace Exploration Satoshi Furukawa and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov.

Nasa Administrator Bill Nelson stated, “Crew-7 is a shining example of the power of American ingenuity and what we can accomplish when we work together.” 

He added that the crew will conduct more than 200 science experiments and technology demonstrations preparing for missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond for the benefit of mankind. 

Nasa partners with countries across the world and engages with the best scientific minds to enable the space agency's bold mission that shows we can do more, learn more and work together.

Crew-7 will join Expedition 69

Crew-7 will join the Nasa astronauts in the space station's Expedition 69 crew, Frank Rubio, Woody Hoburg, and Stephen Bowen along with UAE astronaut Sultan Alneyadi. Astronauts Sergey Prokopyev, Andrey Fedyaev, and Dmitri Petelin, from Roscosmos cosmonauts. The number of crew members will increase to 11 for the short time period until the crew-6 members, Alneyadi, Hoburg, Bowen, and Fedyaev, return to Earth after a few days. 

Crew-7 will conduct new research

The crew-7 will conduct new scientific research for the benefit of mankind and prepare human explorations beyond low Earth orbit. The crew-7 experiment includes microbial samples collected from the outer space station. 

It will help in the first study of human response to different space flight durations, and physiological aspects of astronauts' sleep. The mission will do much more than the experiments mentioned above and technology demonstrations that will take place during the mission.

This mission will also allow Nasa to maximise the utilisation of the space station where astronauts will test technologies, perform science and develop skills required for future commercial destinations in low Earth orbit and explore beyond Earth. 

The research conducted will benefit people on Earth and pave the way for future long-duration trips to the moon through Nasa's Artemis mission.