Related Research Articles
The European Space Agency is an intergovernmental organisation of 22 member states dedicated to the exploration of space. Established in 1975 and headquartered in Paris, ESA has a worldwide staff of about 2,200, as of 2018, and an annual budget of about €7.08 billion, as of 2023.
A mission patch is a cloth reproduction of a spaceflight mission emblem worn by astronauts and other personnel affiliated with that mission. It is usually executed as an embroidered patch. The term space patch is mostly applied to an emblem designed for a crewed space mission. Traditionally, the patch is worn on the space suit that astronauts and cosmonauts wear when launched into space. Mission patches have been adopted by the crew and personnel of many other space ventures, public and private.
A moonbase is a facility on or below the surface of the Moon, enabling human activity on the Moon. As such, it is different from a lunar space station in orbit around the Moon, like the planned Lunar Gateway of the Artemis program. Moonbases can be for robotic or human use, in both cases not necessarily including lunar habitation facilities. A base might be a step towards colonization.
Kimiya Yui is a Japanese astronaut from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). He was selected for the agency in 2009.
Samantha Cristoforetti is an Italian European Space Agency astronaut, former Italian Air Force pilot and engineer. She holds the record for the longest uninterrupted spaceflight by a European astronaut, and she held the record for the longest single space flight by a woman until this was broken by Peggy Whitson in June 2017, and later by Christina Koch. She is also the first Italian woman in space. She took command of ISS Expedition 68 on 28 September 2022.
Andreas Enevold Mogensen is a Danish engineer and ESA astronaut who is best known for being the first Dane to fly in space as part of the European Space Agency's iriss program. Mogensen has also been involved in a number of other space-related projects throughout his career, including working as a test engineer for ESTEC and as a member of the European Astronaut Corps. In addition to his work with the ESA, he has also worked with NASA and other international space agencies. Mogensen will be embarking on his second spaceflight to the ISS onboard SpaceX Crew Dragon as the first non-American to serve as a pilot, scheduled for August 2023.
Alexander Gerst is a German European Space Agency astronaut and geophysicist, who was selected in 2009 to take part in space training. He was part of the International Space Station Expedition 40 and 41 from May to November 2014. Gerst returned to space on 6 June 2018, as part of Expedition 56/57. He was the Commander of the International Space Station. He returned to Earth on 20 December 2018. After the end of his second mission and before being surpassed by Luca Parmitano in 2020, he held the record for most time in space of any active ESA astronaut, succeeding Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli, and German ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter, who formally held the record for the longest time in space for any active or retired ESA astronaut.
Kjell Norwood Lindgren is an American astronaut who was selected in June 2009 as a member of the NASA Astronaut Group 20. He launched to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of Expedition 44/45 on July 22, 2015.
Kathleen Hallisey Rubins is an American microbiologist and NASA astronaut. She became the 60th woman to fly in space when she launched on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) on July 7, 2016. She returned to Earth in Kazakhstan on October 30, 2016, aboard a Soyuz. She was a crew member of Expedition 48/49 and Expedition 63/64 of the ISS. Rubins has spent a total of 300 days, 1 hour, and 31 minutes in space which is the fourth most days in space by a U.S female astronaut.
Gregory Reid Wiseman is an American astronaut, engineer, and naval aviator. He served as Chief of the Astronaut Office until November 14, 2022.
Women have flown and worked in outer space since almost the beginning of human spaceflight. A considerable number of women from a range of countries have worked in space, though overall women are still significantly less often chosen to go to space than men, and by June, 2020 constitute only 12% of all astronauts who have been to space. Yet, the proportion of women among space travelers is increasing substantially over time.
Matthias Josef Maurer is a German European Space Agency astronaut and Materials scientist, who was selected in 2015 to take part in space training.
CAVES, an acronym for Cooperative Adventure for Valuing and Exercising human behaviour and performance Skills, is a European Space Agency astronaut training course in which international astronauts train in a space-analogue cave environment. Designed at the European Astronaut Center, the course aims to prepare astronauts for safe and efficient long duration spaceflight operations by means of a realistic scientific and exploration mission within a multicultural, ISS-representative team.
Argotec is an aerospace engineering company based in Turin whose research, innovation and product development activities use engineering and computing for space applications and renewable energy systems. Particular attention is also given to the field of Human Space Flight and Operations as well as the development of space exploration systems. Argotec is also concerned with the production of nanosatellites and engineering solutions that can be adopted on the International Space Station (ISS), which also have immediate applications on Earth.
Sergey Vladimirovich Kud-Sverchkov is a Russian cosmonaut, selected in 2010 by Roscosmos. He made his first spaceflight in 2020 aboard the International Space Station as a flight engineer for ISS Expedition 63/64.
Expedition 67 was the 67th long-duration expedition to the International Space Station. The expedition began upon the departure of Soyuz MS-19 on 30 March 2022, with NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn taking over as ISS commander. Initially, the expedition consisted of Marshburn and his three SpaceX Crew-3 crewmates Raja Chari, Kayla Barron and Matthias Maurer, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov, who launched aboard Soyuz MS-21 on March 18, 2022 and transferred from Expedition 66 alongside the Crew-3 astronauts. However, continued international collaboration has been thrown into doubt by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and related sanctions on Russia.
Expedition 68 was the 68th long-duration expedition to the International Space Station. The expedition began upon the departure of Soyuz MS-21 on 29 September 2022, with ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti taking over as ISS commander, and ended upon the departure of the uncrewed Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft on 28 March 2023.
SpaceX Crew-4 was the Crew Dragon's fourth NASA Commercial Crew operational flight, and its seventh overall crewed orbital flight. The mission launched on 27 April 2022 at 07:52 UTC before docking with the International Space Station (ISS) at 23:37 UTC. It followed shortly after the private Axiom 1 mission to the ISS earlier in the month utilizing SpaceX hardware. Three American (NASA) astronauts and one European (ESA) astronaut were on board the mission.
The 2022 European Space Agency Astronaut Group is the latest class of the European Astronaut Corps. The selection recruited five "career" astronauts, 11 "reserve" and one "astronaut with a physical disability". They are the fourth European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut class to be recruited, and the first since 2008. Basic training for the career group began in April 2023.
References
- ↑ Francesco Sauro, Samuel J. Payler, Matteo Massironi, Riccardo Pozzobon, Harald Hiesinger, Nicolas Mangold, Charles S. Cockell, Jesus Martínez Frias, Kåre Kullerud, Leonardo Turchi, Igor Drozdovskiy, Loredana Bessone, Training astronauts for scientific exploration on planetary surfaces: The ESA PANGAEA programme, Acta Astronautica, Volume 204, 2023, Pages 222-238, ISSN 0094-5765, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2022.12.034.
- ↑ "What is Pangaea?". www.esa.int.
- ↑ Williams, Matt (September 14, 2016). "Get That Geologist A Flight Suit!".
- ↑ Agency, European Space. "Training astronauts to be scientists on the moon". phys.org.
- ↑ Potter, Sean (December 9, 2020). "NASA Names Artemis Team of Astronauts Eligible for Early Moon Missions". NASA.
- ↑ "Train me to the Moon and back". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2023-07-21.