NASA's SpaceX Crew-7 mission only has one U.S. astronaut onboard. Here's why that's OK
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NASA's next crewed mission to the International Space Station is set to launch from Kennedy Space Center on an American rocket and capsule built by SpaceX. What sets Crew-7 apart from the others in the series of long-duration missions is that only one of the four astronauts flying is from the United States – and that’s a good thing, experts said.
It reflects the changing nature of space in ways that echo the experiences of other industries: more automation and more globalization.
For the astronauts flying, there are a lot of positives, two former astronauts said. More automation means training is quicker and less tedious. That opens more opportunities to be considered for flights on varied spacecraft, from SpaceX's Dragon to the Russian Soyuz, and — when it starts flying — Boeing's Starliner.
But as spacecraft have evolved technologically, they've also become smaller, harkening back to the capsule designs reminiscent of the Apollo era. Whereas the shuttle carried seven, SpaceX's Dragon has seats for four.
And while international cooperation between the U.S., Russia, Canada, and 11 European Space Agency-represented countries has been a cornerstone of the space station operation stretching back to 1998, the United States’ partner agencies increasingly have claims on more of the seats.
"I knew it was a possibility for this to be an all-international crew," NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli and Crew-7 commander told reporters in a pre-flight briefing last month. "It's something that is very special and important to each of us to represent what we can do when we work together in harmony."
Though fewer astronauts get to space in the era of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, the consolation is that missions tend to extend for months rather than shuttle missions that were often shorter, 10-or-so day jaunts to space and back. That’s more exciting for astronauts.
"To float around in space, it seems really fun. To live like that for about half a year, I think, will be incredible," Moghbeli said.
For the six-month-long Crew-7 mission, she'll be joined by European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, along with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and Russian cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov.
They're scheduled to liftoff in SpaceX's Crew Dragon Endurance capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket from pad 39A at 3:49 a.m. EDT Friday, Aug. 25. It will be SpaceX's eighth mission with NASA and the company's overall 11th human spaceflight mission, including three that flew private astronauts — Inspiration4, Axiom-1, and Axiom-2.
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"It's really an honor for the Commercial Crew Program to fly, for the first time, each of our international partners," said NASA's Steve Stich, Commercial Crew Program manager, in a pre-flight mission briefing last month.
Another first with Crew-7 is that Mogenson, Crew-7 pilot, "will be the first ESA astronaut and first non-U.S. astronaut to pilot the Dragon vehicle," Frank De Winne, ESA International Space Station program manager, said during last month's briefing.
Mogenson of Denmark is not new to spaceflight. His first mission aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the space station lasted 10 days in 2015.
"We're very proud, and he's very, very excited," said De Winne.
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Fewer seats mean fewer astronauts are necessary
"It is interesting that there's only one U.S. astronaut," Eileen Collins, a four-time space shuttle astronaut, told FLORIDA TODAY.
But Collins noted: "You're limited in how many you can send up, and we have all the international commitments."
The agency participates in crew swap agreements with Russia meaning that each time a cosmonaut flies on a NASA mission, a U.S. astronaut flies on a Soyuz spacecraft.
NASA's Loral O’Hara is slated to follow Crew-7 to the space station this fall aboard the Russian Soyuz MS-24 mission set for launch in September.
"My perspective is: this is okay, this is normal," Collins said of the international crew taking three of the four seats on this upcoming crewed flight. "(NASA is) supporting the space station and definitely has a limited number of seats. That means less U.S. astronauts will be flying as opposed to the shuttle days where you had more seats."
According to a report by the agency's inspector general last year, NASA fills out its astronaut roster enough to ensure steady rotation to maintain the space station. But with more ISS taxis to choose from, each of which requires time for specialized training, today's relatively small astronaut corps doesn't leave much room for scenarios that could impact flight assignment schedules like retirements, health concerns, or any other reason that could make an astronaut ineligible to fly.
Beyond that, NASA's lunar-focused Artemis program creates new constraints on the astronaut corps that haven't been a concern for the last 20 years of routine ISS missions.
With an assignment to a moon mission, astronauts need a different kind of training to develop specialized skillsets not required of space station missions. That constraint makes it very difficult for NASA to reassign those individuals to any other mission, further reducing the already slim pickings of today's smaller astronaut corps for ISS missions.
As NASA moves forward over the next decade, without adding more astronauts, the agency risks "disruptive crew reorganizations or mission delays," according to the report.
A shift in spaceflight purpose
In total, NASA's astronaut corps now comprises 40 "active" astronauts eligible for flight assignments and 10 astronaut candidates who will be eligible after completing a two-year training cycle. In 2000, NASA's astronaut office had a portfolio peak of 150 candidates eligible for flight.
The influences on the size of the astronaut corps over the decades have been a complex equation.
Former shuttle astronaut and now advisor to SpaceX Garrett Reisman told FLORIDA TODAY that many astronauts voluntarily left the agency during the time between the loss of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003 and the retirement of the shuttle program in 2011.
Chances for flight assignments were drastically diminished after 2011, when the agency had to rely solely on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft for transportation services.
Before then, the agency's focus and the space shuttle's purpose was to build the space station. Now that it's been a fully functioning orbital research laboratory for more than 20 years, "it's more about a shift from construction to implementation and utilization," said Reisman. "That's how we get the return on our investment."
While space station maintenance is a major focus, astronauts now spend the majority of their time completing research, experiments, and investigations. That requires a different skillset for astronauts in the same way that the Apollo era almost exclusively demanded test pilots' skills to ensure that the American space program got off the ground.
Smaller, but smarter spacecraft
Collins said another reason for a small astronaut corps: the technological advancement of spacecraft requires less human intervention and offers more automated and reliable spaceflight capability.
"These launch vehicles, Starliner, Dragon, we've got the Soyuz also, but mainly those first two, are highly automated," said Collins. "The shuttle was very manual."
"Technology has come so far that we can automate not only the nominal activities but if something fails, the failure corrections can be automated also," she said. "I think you can jump from a Starliner to a Dragon much faster than you could jump to a shuttle; I am one hundred percent sure that nobody will disagree with me."
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According to Collins, the capability to simultaneously train astronauts on multiple spacecraft platforms enables more flexibility in flight assignments and could create more opportunities for each astronaut to fly more often.
"You can specifically say the highly manual nature of the space shuttle required longer training flows and today's technology allows spacecraft to be automated, shortening the training flows. That's a good thing," said Collins. "That allows the astronauts more time available to train for their long duration flight and spend less time on the launch and entry."
Meet Crew-7: NASA Astronaut, Jasmin Moghbeli, Commander
Moghbeli is from Baldwin, New York. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School. She is also a graduate of the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School.
Before being selected by NASA for astronaut duties in 2017, she served as a helicopter pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps. According to a NASA statement, she, "has accumulated more than 150 combat missions and 2,000 hours of flight time in over 25 different aircraft."
Crew-7 is her first flight to space.
"One of the things I'm most excited about is looking back at our beautiful planet; everyone I've talked to who has flown already has said that was a life-changing perspective," Moghbeli said in a pre-flight news conference.
She also told reporters she's bringing nearly identical stuffed dragons to space. Though both are the same stuffed dragon, they vary slightly in appearance, a representation of her twin daughters.
"I introduced them to these dragons before, and then I said "Okay, now we got to box them up and pack them for space." So I'm looking forward to showing them the dragons floating around," she said.
ESA Astronaut: Andreas Mogensen, Pilot
Mogensen is from Copenhagen, Denmark. He was selected for astronaut duties by the European Space Agency in 2009. He holds a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering from Imperial College London in the UK and a doctorate in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas.
"I have two experiments that I'm very much looking forward to because they both involve sitting in cupola — or window module — and taking photos out of cupola," Mogensen said in last month's briefing. "Any time you get to spend time even working in cupola is a great time because it really is an incredible place to look down at our beautiful planet, but also out into space."
In 2015, he became the first Danish person to go to space. Aside from his experience as an astronaut, he worked on the engineering team in control of guidance, navigation, and control for the ESA Lunar Lander mission. Since 2016 he has been the European astronaut liaison at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Texas.
JAXA Astronaut: Satoshi Furukawa, Mission Specialist
Furukawa was born in 1964 and is from Kanagawa, Japan. He is a veteran astronaut who spent 165 days in space in 2011 and helped support the final space shuttle mission.
According to a JAXA statement, in 1999, he was "selected as one of three Japanese astronaut candidates to work on the ISS by the National Space Development Agency of Japan" and certified as an astronaut in 2001.
He holds master's and doctorate degrees in medical science, having focused on research and practice of gastrointestinal surgery at the University of Tokyo Hospital before being selected for astronaut duties.
"In addition to photos from families and friends, I am bringing some photos of the students from the schools I graduated from," Furukawa said in last month's briefing. "I'm looking forward to taking photos with them."
Roscosmos Cosmonaut: Konstantin Borisov, Mission Specialist
Borisov is from Smolensk, Russia. He first joined Roscosmos, the country's space agency, as a test cosmonaut candidate in 2018. He completed astronaut training in preparation for a spaceflight assignment in 2020.
He holds a bachelor's degree in economics and two master's in operations research and systems analysis and aircraft life support systems. Before training as a cosmonaut, he worked as an analyst, consultant, and project manager with Russian industrial companies.
"It hasn't hit me yet, which I am a bit surprised," Borisov said last month. "I know, with my brain, we're going to space. But the thing is that the training has been so intense and so hard that it's not psychologically hitting me yet."
"I'm looking forward to helping with all the tasks. This is a very interesting profession, you are preparing for something which you haven't tried yet, and you really want to do it well, but you don't know what it will be," he said. "I'm really looking forward to the adventure, and I'm really excited and honored to do that."
Speaking to reporters last month, he said he is bringing his son's first toy to space to return to him as a present in addition to family photos.
On Aug. 11, the four crew members entered a two-week quarantine period, a routine part of flight preparation. With their arrival in Florida currently slated for Sunday afternoon, the quarantine period will continue at Kennedy Space Center until launch day.
For the latest schedule updates, visit floridatoday.com/launchschedule.
Contact Jamie Groh at JGroh@floridatoday.com and follow her on X.com at @AlteredJamie.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: NASA's crewed SpaceX mission flying only one U.S. astronaut. Here's why
