Axiom Space has announced today Walter Villadei as back-up crew member of Ax-2.
Quote from: hektor on 05/25/2022 08:28 pmAxiom Space has announced today Walter Villadei as back-up crew member of Ax-2.Will Villadei be backing up Whitson or Shoffner?
So now that we know Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will be Commander and Pilot respectively for BOE-CFT. Are we alright to assume that Mike Fincke will be commander on Starliner-1. There is also the case of Matthew Dominick who seems to also be training on the Starliner. I'm hoping once CFT flies successfully NASA will publish the crews (NASA Astronauts) for hopefully 1-3 of the Starliner flights since that's what they've been doing with SpaceX. But I guess it will all depend on when the Starliners fly since NASA won't want to announce too far ahead.
I would guess Mike Fincke as commander of Starliner-1 with Matthew Dominick commanding Starliner-2. And Jeanette Epps stays on Starliner-1 as Mission Specialist 1 or 2.Maybe if Eric Boe is cleared of his medical issues, he could fly as pilot on either Starliner-1 or Starliner-2.
Yes, I agree. If Boe does ever fly, I can't imagine a two-time Shuttle PLT would not want the CDR spot.Dominick is currently Starliner-1 backup CDR, so a likely contender either for Starliner-1 PLT or perhaps Starliner-2 CDR.
I guessed Boe as pilot because he was originally the CFT Joint Operations Commander (before Fincke replaced him). To me, that’s a form of the pilot role similar to Behnken’s assignment on Demo-2.
Is it true, however, that actually Boe would have been commander if Ferguson had not been brought in to push him into the pilot's seat?
https://spaceflightnow.com/2022/07/15/russian-space-chief-dismissed-nasa-gets-deal-for-joint-crews/Cosmonaut Anna Kikina also will launch in September aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule along with NASA astronauts Nicole Mann, Josh Cassada and veteran Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata. Launch had been targeted for Sept. 1, but NASA officials are no longer saying when the mission might get underway, indicating a delay may be in the offing.NASA also announced Friday that astronaut Loral O’Hara will launch aboard the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft next spring, along with Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub. Cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev will join astronauts Steve Bowen and Woody Hoburg aboard a SpaceX capsule that’s also targeting a spring 2023 launch.