Flight crew assignments questions/speculation

[NasaFan95]

Dedicated thread for questions, to keep the main thread clean for actual assignments.

I do have a question when is the Boeing crewed flight test gonna happen it was originally scheduled for July and now has been postponed until a later date, so I wonder if space x crew 9 will fly first or if starliner crew 1 will fly first instead of doing the test flight. If anyone knows anything please let me know.

[marcdrnl]

With what we can read in some of Borisov Telegram post, Prokopiev will continue to command until his departure, then Mogensen until Crew-7 departure (so nearly the complete Exp-70) and then Kononenko take for the end of 70 and Exp-71 in complete.

The question is who will take in for Exp-72 but it will be a USOS astro for sure

[John_Marshall]

I do have a question when is the Boeing crewed flight test gonna happen it was originally scheduled for July and now has been postponed until a later date, so I wonder if space x crew 9 will fly first or if starliner crew 1 will fly first instead of doing the test flight. If anyone knows anything please let me know.

No one has any way of knowing what will fly when right now. They're not going to skip the test flight, but otherwise, your guess is probably as good as mine. Until news comes out, nobody knows. Right now, all any of us can do is speculate.

With what we can read in some of Borisov Telegram post, Prokopiev will continue to command until his departure, then Mogensen until Crew-7 departure (so nearly the complete Exp-70) and then Kononenko take for the end of 70 and Exp-71 in complete.

The question is who will take in for Exp-72 but it will be a USOS astro for sure

Thanks, Marc! I hadn't seen that.

[vp.]

With what we can read in some of Borisov Telegram post, Prokopiev will continue to command until his departure, then Mogensen until Crew-7 departure (so nearly the complete Exp-70) and then Kononenko take for the end of 70 and Exp-71 in complete.
...

Why Mogensen, not Furukawa ?

[NasaFan95]

So who’ll command the second half of expedition 71 barratt or Caldwell. Based on ISS experience I’d go with barratt.

[John_Marshall]

So who’ll command the second half of expedition 71 barratt or Caldwell. Based on ISS experience I’d go with barratt.

Marc said a couple posts back that Kononenko will command all of Expedition 71. If you mean Expedition 72, nobody knows right now.

[Ben E]

Per Rob Navias, in a comment to me some time ago:

Prokopyev commands Exp69 through his crew's departure in September 2023
Mogensen commands Exp70 through his crew's departure in February 2024
Kononenko was assigned to command the remainder of Exp70 through his crew's departure in March 2024.

Now that Kononenko's increment has been lengthened from six months to a year, I have no idea. Perhaps a precedent has been set by Prokopyev, which may mean Kononenko will also command Exp71 through September 2024?

But they don't tend to name ISS CDRs this far out. Remember last year Cristoforetti was meant to command, then for a while her flight was shortened and she was not expected to command, and then things changed again and she got a few weeks in command after all. It tends to change based on crew assignments and when flights take place.

[NasaFan95]

That’s I think just rumors that he’s gonna command expedition 71.,

[John_Marshall]

Please stop asking this question. You've asked several times and received appropriate answers.

Thank you.

[gongora]

There is a thread for the Starliner flight.  The latest info should be in that thread.

[zubenelgenubi]

In response to a member question regarding this thread:
Profile > Modify Profile > Buddies/Ignore List > Edit Ignore List

[John_Marshall]

Sorry if this isn't the right thread for this, but does anyone know when it is likely to be announced whether USCV-9 will be a Dragon flight or a Starliner flight? We're not much over a year from launch, presuming that the current calendar continues into 2024.

[Ben E]

Judging from earlier CFT remarks, the Starliner-1 mission is anticipated a year after CFT.

As such, at the present time, Starliner-1 is USCV-9 in late summer/early fall of 2024. Tingle and Fincke are already assigned and the names of Yui and Kutryk have also been floated, but not sure how accurate that is.

One thing I'm fairly sure is that the Russians won't fly a cosmonaut on Starliner-1. Or will they?

[John_Marshall]

Judging from earlier CFT remarks, the Starliner-1 mission is anticipated a year after CFT.

As such, at the present time, Starliner-1 is USCV-9 in late summer/early fall of 2024. Tingle and Fincke are already assigned and the names of Yui and Kutryk have also been floated, but not sure how accurate that is.

One thing I'm fairly sure is that the Russians won't fly a cosmonaut on Starliner-1. Or will they?

Right. I knew that was the plan for USCV-9 before the Crewed Flight Test got delayed, but I didn't know if it was still the plan now. Re Yui and Kutryk, that's interesting. I had thought that would one of them would be on PCM-1 and the other would be on Crew-9.

I think I saw that they wanted one or two good flights first (I forget which), so I would think no but that it won't take as long as it did with Dragon (although I know that part of that delay was getting the swaps off the ground in the first place.

[cheriedavy]

As of that time, the specific schedules for Boeing's Crewed Flight Test (Starliner) and SpaceX's Crew-9 mission were not available. For the most current information on these missions and their schedules, I recommend checking with official NASA or Boeing/SpaceX sources or reputable news outlets.

[ZachS09]

My best guess as to why Matt Dominick is commander is because he's a test pilot, and such occupation qualifies him as commander. I don't think spaceflight experience plays a factor when choosing flight assignments.

That doesn't explain Kjell Lindgren and Bob Hines on Crew-4, but otherwise, I think you're right.

Moved this comment to the "Flight crew assignments questions" thread in "General Discussion" since it's off-topic in the Crew-8 thread.

The term "test pilot" refers to an experienced fighter pilot who evaluates brand-new aircraft technologies and other stuff a regular fighter pilot doesn't have experience with. Bob Hines' occupation prior to entering the astronaut corps was a civilian research pilot.

To me, the term "civilian research" is a slightly lower rank than test pilot. Hence maybe why Bob Hines was assigned as Crew-4 pilot. Don't know why Kjell Lindgren was assigned as Crew-4 commander since he's a physician.

[John_Marshall]

Moved this comment to the "Flight crew assignments questions" thread in "General Discussion" since it's off-topic in the Crew-8 thread.

The term "test pilot" refers to an experienced fighter pilot who evaluates brand-new aircraft technologies and other stuff a regular fighter pilot doesn't have experience with. Bob Hines' occupation prior to entering the astronaut corps was a civilian research pilot.

To me, the term "civilian research" is a slightly lower rank than test pilot. Hence maybe why Bob Hines was assigned as Crew-4 pilot. Don't know why Kjell Lindgren was assigned as Crew-4 commander since he's a physician.

Sorry! Didn't mean to be off topic! I thought it was on topic in that what you were saying explained Crew-8 and assignments other than Crew-4 (e.g., Chari and Marshburn on Crew-3).

That could be it. He was a fighter pilot and test pilot before that, though, and his NASA bio says that he has over 4,000 hours of flight time in 50 aircraft and 76 combat missions across 3 aircraft.

[dcfowler1]

On Dragon, test flight experience or fighter pilot experience isn't that important for CDR and PLT, as the craft mostly flies itself.

Moghbeli is a rotor wing pilot and is Crew 7 commander, for instance.

Also, FYI, civilians go through test pilot school too. In my mind, a 'research pilot' is a 'test pilot.'

[John_Marshall]

On Dragon, test flight experience or fighter pilot experience isn't that important for CDR and PLT, as the craft mostly flies itself.

Understood. I was just surprised by the break of the "pattern" with Lindgren-Hines, as compared with, e.g., Kimbrough-McArthur and Chari-Marshburn and Dominick-Barratt.

[Ben E]

Lindgren also backed-up Demo-2, so that might go some way to explaining why he drew the Crew-4 command, rather than Hines.