Four astronauts from NASA's manned spaceflight Crew-3 mission will leave the International Space Station later this month and return to Earth.
NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron and European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer of the Crew-3 mission arrived at the International Space Station in November 2021 aboard the SpaceX crew Dragon spacecraft.
Clockwise from the bottom are NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Kayla Barron, Thomas Marshburn, and European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer.
In a six-month science mission, they completed four spacewalks, conducted various plant growth experiments, tested new systems for growing crops, studied drought-resistant cotton, and also tested handheld bioprinters that print bandages made of skin cells directly onto wounds. They also installed a new device to support fire safety research in microgravity environments.
Also on the ISS are Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Sergey Korsokov and Denis Matveev.
Ax-1 mission space visitors Michael López-Alegría, Larry Connor, Eytan Stibbe and Mark Pathy were launched on SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets and boarded the International Space Station on April 9, EST, where they will spend eight days. With the arrival of this space tour group of "all-private" astronauts, the number of people currently aboard the International Space Station has increased to 11.
Next, NASA's manned space mission Crew-4 will also be launched by the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, and a new manned Dragon spacecraft will send four astronauts to the International Space Station for scientific expeditions. Four were pilot Robert Hines, mission specialist Samantha Cristoforetti and Jessica Watkins, and Commander Kjell Lindgren. Among them, Haynes, Watkins, and Lindgren are NASA astronauts, and Samantha Christofretti is an astronaut of the European Space Agency.