A crew of astronauts may have just reached the International Space Station, but NASA has already announced their replacements.
Days before the launch of a mission known as Crew-13, the U.S. space agency revealed the names of the astronauts selected for the follow-up venture known, unsurprisingly, as Crew-14.
That mission, though, has a long time to go until it gets off the ground from Florida. That's because the two Americans, one Canadian and one Russian comprising Crew-13 are freshly arrived at the orbital outpost, where they're due to spend the next several months.
In the meantime, here's what we know so far about a joint NASA and SpaceX mission known as Crew-14, as well as the four spacefarers named to its crew.
as US space boom outgrows launch sites
NASA announces astronauts of Crew-14
The launch Crew-14 is still months away, but NASA has already unveiled the astronauts named to the mission in a Sept. 24 press release.
The astronauts will become the next crew to head to the ISS following a launch in a SpaceX Dragon vehicle hitching a ride to space atop a Falcon 9 rocket.
What is the Crew-14 mission?
Contracted under NASA's Commercial Crew Program, the Crew-14 mission will be the next that tasks tech mogul Elon Musk's SpaceX with sending a contingent of astronauts to the International Space Station.
Several months from now, the astronauts will head to the station for a long-duration mission that involves conducting scientific experiments meant for microgravity and maintaining space station operations, which potentially includes spacewalks.
Who are the astronauts of the Crew-14 mission to the ISS?
Here's a look at the four astronauts NASA selected for the Crew-14 mission:
- Kayla Barron, a NASA astronaut who will serve as commander of the mission. Barron, a Navy commander from Washington state, will be making her second trip to the space station after serving as a member of Crew-3 in 2021.
- Chris Birch, a NASA astronaut who will serve as the pilot of the mission. Selected as an astronaut in 2021, Birch is a bioengineer from Arizona making her first spaceflight.
- Makoto Suwa, an astronaut with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) who will be a mission specialist. A geoscientist selected to train with JAXA in 2021, Suwa is making his first spaceflight.
- Arutyun Kiviryan, a Roscosmos cosmonaut from Russia who is the second mission specialist. Kiviryan is making his first trip to space.
When will Crew-14 launch to International Space Station?
Because the Crew-13 contingent only just arrived at the space station, it will be several months before the mission's Crew-14 successors head to the outpost to replace them.
NASA indicated the mission is unlikely to get off the ground any earlier than spring 2027.
What astronauts are on the International Space Station?
The four astronauts selected for the Crew-13 mission are the newest arrivals at the iconic ISS.
NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, as well as Joshua Kutryk of the Canadian Space Agency and Russian cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov arrived Thursday, Oct. 1 following a nearly eight-hour journey. The crew members launched for the space station in a SpaceX Dragon capsule perched atop a Falcon 9 rocket, which lifted off the from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Now that the Crew-13 astronauts have arrived, it will be a matter of days until their Crew-12 predecessors depart following a handover period. Those four astronauts – NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, as well as the European Space Agency's Sophie Adenot and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev – docked in mid-February at the orbital outpost and will eventually make a water landing near California.
NASA astronaut Anil Menon also arrived in mid-July at the space station with Russians Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina on a Roscosmos Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft for an eight-month mission.
Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@usatodayco.com
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: As Crew-13 reaches space station, NASA already announces next mission
