![]() Crew Dragon Endurance docked to the ISS during Crew-3 | |
Names | USCV-3 |
---|---|
Mission type | ISS crew transport |
Operator | SpaceX |
COSPAR ID | 2021-103A |
SATCAT no. | 49407![]() |
Mission duration | 176 days, 2 hours and 39 minutes |
Spacecraft properties | |
Spacecraft | Crew Dragon Endurance |
Spacecraft type | Crew Dragon |
Manufacturer | SpaceX |
Launch mass | 12,055 kg (26,577 lb)[1] |
Crew | |
Crew size | 4 |
Members | |
Expedition | Expedition 66 / 67 |
Start of mission | |
Launch date | 11 November 2021, 02:03:31 UTC |
Rocket | Falcon 9 Block 5 (B1067.2) |
Launch site | Kennedy Space Center, LC-39A |
Contractor | SpaceX |
End of mission | |
Recovered by | MV Shannon |
Landing date | 6 May 2022, 04:43 UTC[2] |
Landing site | Gulf of Mexico |
Orbital parameters | |
Reference system | Geocentric orbit |
Regime | Low Earth orbit |
Inclination | 51.66° |
Docking with International Space Station | |
Docking port | Harmony forward |
Docking date | 11 November 2021, 23:32 UTC |
Undocking date | 5 May 2022, 05:20 UTC [3][2] |
Time docked | 174 days and 6 hours |
![]() SpaceX Crew-3 mission patch ![]() Chari, Marshburn, Maurer and Barron |
SpaceX Crew-3 was the Crew Dragon's third NASA Commercial Crew operational flight, and its fifth overall crewed orbital flight. The mission successfully launched on 11 November 2021 at 02:03:31 UTC to the International Space Station.[4] It was the maiden flight of Crew Dragon Endurance.[5]
This launch brought the total number of humans who have been to space to more than 600 with Maurer (600) and Barron (601).[6]
Crew Dragon capsules have been given names by their initial crews — Endeavour for the first, and Resilience for the second. On 7 October 2021, it was announced that the third capsule will be called Endurance.[7] The name honors the SpaceX and NASA teams that endured through a pandemic, building the spacecraft and training the astronauts who flew it.[8] The name also honors Endurance, the ship used by Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. The three-masted vessel sank in 1915 after being bound in ice before reaching Antarctica.[9]
German ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer was selected first for the mission in September 2020.[10][11][12] NASA astronauts Raja Chari and Thomas Marshburn were added on 14 December 2020 to the crew.[13][14] The fourth seat was left open in anticipation that a Russian cosmonaut would take the seat, marking the beginning of a barter agreement that would see NASA and Roscosmos trade seats on the Soyuz and Commercial Crew Vehicles, although in April 2021 then-acting NASA administration Steve Jurczyk said that this agreement would be unlikely to start until after Crew-3 had launched.[15] The fourth seat was assigned to Kayla Barron in May 2021.[16]
Chari is the first rookie astronaut to command a NASA space mission since the Skylab 4 crew blasted off to the Skylab space station in 1973. Gerald Carr, who had not flown in space before, led a three-man crew on an 84-day flight on the Skylab.[17] This was also the first spaceflight for Maurer and Barron.[18]
Position | Astronaut | |
---|---|---|
Spacecraft commander | ![]() Expedition 66 / 67 First spaceflight | |
Pilot | ![]() Expedition 66 / 67 Third and last spaceflight | |
Mission specialist 1 [19] | ![]() Expedition 66 / 67 First spaceflight | |
Mission specialist 2 [19] | ![]() Expedition 66 / 67 First spaceflight | |
References:[19][20][11][13][14][16] |
Position | Astronaut | |
---|---|---|
Spacecraft commander | ![]() | |
Pilot | ![]() | |
Mission specialist 1 | ![]() | |
Mission specialist 2 | ![]() | |
References:[21][22][23] |
The first astronauts of this NASA Astronaut Group 22 (nicknamed The Turtles) to fly to space, Raja Chari and Kayla Barron on SpaceX Crew-3 took a stuffed turtle as zero-g indicator, to pay a tribute to their astronaut group.[24] Additionally, to include the other crew members on board, Matthias Maurer and Tom Marshburn, the turtle was named "Pfau", a German word meaning "Peacock" for Matthias Maurer who is German, and for Tom Marshburn who was part of NASA Astronaut Group 19 (nicknamed The Peacocks).[25]
The third SpaceX operational mission in the Commercial Crew Program was originally scheduled to launch on 31 October 2021.[26] However, it was delayed to 3 November 2021 due to unfavorable weather in the Atlantic Ocean,[27] and then further delayed to 7 November 2021 due to a minor medical issue with one of the astronauts.[28] Due to expected bad weather, it was again delayed to 9 November 2021.[29]
Due to the launch delays, NASA decided to return the astronauts from Crew-2 before Crew-3 launched, thus being the first Crew Dragon indirect handover of space station crews.[30] SpaceX Crew-2 departed the station on 8 November 2021 and splashed down on 9 November 2021. SpaceX Crew-3 mission launched from Cape Canaveral on 11 November 2021 at 02:03:31 UTC.[31]
The return of Crew-3 was delayed multiple times, from April 2022 to early May. Undocking happened on 5 May (05:20 UTC), with splashdown occurring the following day after spending 176 days in space.[32]
The European segment of the mission is called "Cosmic Kiss".[33]