- NASA will launch two crewed missions in early February — Crew-12 to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX’s Dragon and Artemis II to orbit the Moon.
- Crew-12 astronauts will conduct experiments on IV fluid preservation, human health in microgravity, and plant growth to prepare for long-duration missions to Mars in the 2030s.
- SpaceX is developing upgraded, adjustable flight suits designed for mass production to support future large-scale human space exploration.
During NASA administrator Jared Isaacman’s swearing-in last month, he promised to work with SpaceX to accelerate the rate of space exploration. So in early February, NASA will launch two rockets: one to deliver four astronauts to the International Space Station, and another to circumnavigate the moon.
At a prelaunch press conference on Friday, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, Steve Stich, said that for the first time in 60 years, the national space program has had two teams in quarantine (to prepare for launch) at once.
Crew-12 — headed to the International Space Station — will board SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft on Feb. 11, which will be mounted on the company’s reusable Falcon 9 rocket.
Artemis II, which will lead the first crewed mission to the vicinity of the moon since the early ‘70s, is set to launch no earlier than Feb. 8.
While Artemis II won’t land, its successor, Artemis III, is expected to launch and land on the surface of the moon mid-2027. NASA awarded SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract to build the vehicle that will carry astronauts to the moon.
“It’s an exciting time in human space flight,” Stich said.
Space station experiments will prep for a near-future flight to Mars
NASA wants to send humans to Mars in the 2030s, and Crew-12 will work on experiments at the space station to prepare the agency for the future mission, Dina Contella, the International Space Station deputy manager, told the press Friday.
The moon is about 239,000 miles away, and it takes about four days to get there. Mars, on the other hand, is on average 140 million miles from Earth, and scientists predict a round-trip flight to the planet would take around three years.
To keep astronauts alive and healthy for that long requires a lot of research and innovation. One experiment Crew-12 will work on studies how to keep IV fluids from expiring before the end of long-duration missions.
In space, these astronauts will see if they can purify regular water well enough to make medical-grade IV fluids. “So we’ll bring a bag of IV fluid home, test it out and see if it meets the mark,” Contella said.
Crew-12 will also study their blood flow to understand how microgravity could impact human health in the long term. They will also examine plant microbe interactions to help them grow vegetation on future missions.
SpaceX working on spacesuits that can be mass produced
Crew-12 will wear upgraded flight suits similar to what Crew 11 pilot Mike Fincke wore during his mission, Lee Echerd, a senior mission manager for SpaceX, told the press.
These suits will be easier to enter, exit and adjust.
The adjustments let SpaceX “build a smaller set of standard flight suit sizes, then adjust for the individual versus building a custom suit every time,” Echerd said.
He added that the main goal in the upgrades is to eventually be capable of “building hundreds and thousands of flight suits to support a future with multi-planet species.”