SpaceX’s Crew-3 mission, which was scheduled to be launched last week. The Crew-3 mission was planned to launch on October 31 but delayed due to poor weather, transporting mission Commander Raja Chari and three other astronauts on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule named Endurance. Raja graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a master’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics and is also a graduate of the US Navy’s Test Pilot school.
This will be SpaceX’s fourth NASA astronaut launch and its fifth passenger trip in total. After the shuttle fleet was retired in 2011, NASA resorted to Boeing and SpaceX to ferry their astronauts to and from the space station. US astronauts also took rides on Russian rockets until SpaceX took control of the mission in 2020. Boeing, on the other hand, is yet to launch anyone. Due to valve-related issues, a repeat test flight of the Starliner capsule with no crew members has been delayed until 2022.
Apart from Commander Raja Chari, Chari’s Team, the Crew-3 Mission, will include three more astronauts. They are European Space Agency’s Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron, and Matthias Maurer. According to NASA’s report, Matthias Maurer, a German astronaut, will become the 600th person to travel to space when he launches on SpaceX’s Falcon rocket. Maurer told the media earlier this week that he had offered the title to crewmate Barron, who would become the 601st human in space.
