Alpha (space mission)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mission dates
Mission: alpha
Crew: 1
Begin: April 23, 2021 , 09:49 UTC , LC-39A
Outbound flight in: SpaceX Crew-2
Space station: ISS
Coupling: April 24, 2021, 09:08 UTC
Return flight in: SpaceX Crew-2
Landing:
Flight duration: 6 months (planned)
◄ Before / After ►
Beyond Cosmic Kiss

Alpha is the name for a space flight during which the French spaceman Thomas Pesquet will stay on board the ISS for six months in 2021 . The name of this mission says nothing about its content. It is common for ESA astronauts to have an individual motto for their mission.

Alpha is the first mission in which an ESA astronaut flew to the ISS aboard a Crew Dragon .

preparation

Pesquet was officially selected as a spaceman by the European Space Agency ESA in May 2009. In 2016 he flew to the ISS with the Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft and spent six months there on the ISS Proxima mission as a flight engineer for ISS expeditions 50 and 51 .

On July 28, 2020 it was announced that Pesquet would fly into space for a second long-term stay as part of the ISS Expedition 65 . The German spaceman Matthias Maurer was planned as a substitute for Pesquet .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Crew Dragon Docks to Station Day After Launch . NASA blog April 24, 2021.
  2. ^ Keeping up with Thomas . Space Daily, March 17, 2021.
  3. a b Thomas Pesquet first ESA astronaut to ride a Dragon to space. Retrieved July 28, 2020 .