Flight crew assignments

[John_Marshall]

Either Artemis II or Artemis III for sure--that seems very likely given his seniority and piloting experience and work with Artemis.

[hektor]

From Saudi Arabia and Turkey compete to get a woman astronaut into orbit as soon as possible

The selection process for the Turkish astronauts is carried out by the Tübitak Space Technology Research Institute in Ankara, with the support of Axiom and under the direction of the Turkish Space Agency on behalf of the Turkish government. In the case of Saudi Arabia, the responsibility for selection rests with its Space Commission.

[NasaFan95]

https://twitter.com/SciGuySpace/status/1572661190370672640

I’m surprised fincke didn’t get the command he has more experience than tingle. I mean no disrespect to tingle.

[NasaFan95]

https://twitter.com/SciGuySpace/status/1572661190370672640

I’m surprised fincke didn’t get the command he has more experience than tingle. I mean no disrespect to tingle.

have they announced who’s gonna command expedition 70 yet or no.

[ZachS09]

https://twitter.com/SciGuySpace/status/1572661190370672640

I’m surprised Fincke didn't get the command since he has more experience than Tingle. I mean, no disrespect to Tingle.

It's not uncommon for a spacecraft commander to have less experience than the pilot. On SpaceX Crew-3, the commander Raja Chari was making his first flight while pilot Tom Marshburn was on his third flight.

[NasaFan95]

https://twitter.com/SciGuySpace/status/1572661190370672640

I’m surprised Fincke didn't get the command since he has more experience than Tingle. I mean, no disrespect to Tingle.

It's not uncommon for a spacecraft commander to have less experience than the pilot. On SpaceX Crew-3, the commander Raja Chari was making his first flight while pilot Tom Marshburn was on his third flight.

that one did surprise some people but raja chari or grinder as he’s known by is an amazing test pilot.

[Ben E]

I imagine test-piloting credentials still count in these contexts. Chari and Tingle are both military test pilots, whereas Marshburn and Fincke are not.

Then you have anomalies like Crew-4, where a military test pilot (Hines) flies as PLT to a civilian physician CDR (Lindgren), but the same precedent didn't apply on Crew-3. Strange.

[Michael Cassutt]

I imagine test-piloting credentials still count in these contexts. Chari and Tingle are both military test pilots, whereas Marshburn and Fincke are not.

Then you have anomalies like Crew-4, where a military test pilot (Hines) flies as PLT to a civilian physician CDR (Lindgren), but the same precedent didn't apply on Crew-3. Strange.

NASA, especially the astronaut office, judges Starliner to be a more demanding flying challenge than Dragon, at least for the first few piloted flights. They want the CDR to be a test pilot, for now.  Not sure if that will apply to Starliner-2, but it does explain the difference between the two vehicles and crewing.

Michael Cassutt

[John_Marshall]

NASA, especially the astronaut office, judges Starliner to be a more demanding flying challenge than Dragon, at least for the first few piloted flights. They want the CDR to be a test pilot, for now.  Not sure if that will apply to Starliner-2, but it does explain the difference between the two vehicles and crewing.

Interesting! I'm not looking to derail the thread, but is there a short answer to what makes Starliner more demanding? Is it the previous problems, the way the vehicle is flown, or something else?

[Zed_Noir]

NASA, especially the astronaut office, judges Starliner to be a more demanding flying challenge than Dragon, at least for the first few piloted flights. They want the CDR to be a test pilot, for now.  Not sure if that will apply to Starliner-2, but it does explain the difference between the two vehicles and crewing.

Interesting! I'm not looking to derail the thread, but is there a short answer to what makes Starliner more demanding? Is it the previous problems, the way the vehicle is flown, or something else?

My guess is that the crew interfaces on the Dragon is easier to use than the more physical interfaces on the Starliner. Touch screens on the Dragon versus the buttons and readouts of the Starliner (late 90ish military cockpit look & feel).

Also maybe the vehicle interfaces usage could be easily logged on the Dragon for the entire mission. While the Starliner is less capable of logging interfaces usage. So the CDR & PLT have to do more oversight and confirmations with the mission control on Earth.

So the Starliner might need people that have experience with the older cockpit look and feel. Instead of folks use to flying in glass cockpits in most of the modern aircraft.

[Ben E]

It does seem strange that Boeing has gone for such an "outdated", non-state-of-the-art and pilot-reliant approach to Starliner's cockpit architecture, which is still unflown with crew, several years after SpaceX's touchscreen-based Crew Dragon is not only proven with crew, but fully operational for NASA and non-NASA civilian missions.

[ddspaceman]

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1580187425006985216

[John_Marshall]

Spacefacts is showing Jeremy Hansen on Crew-7 now--has there been an announcement about that (whether official or unofficial)? As of last I knew, from the pictures posted in the Crew-7 thread recently, Satoshi Furukawa was in training for that flight.

[NasaFan95]

Spacefacts is showing Jeremy Hansen on Crew-7 now--has there been an announcement about that (whether official or unofficial)? As of last I knew, from the pictures posted in the Crew-7 thread recently, Satoshi Furukawa was in training for that flight.

I think it’s official, if furukawa doesn’t fly on crew 7 or Starliner 1, he’ll probably fly on starliner 2. Or crew dragon crew 8.

[ZachS09]

I don’t know the answer to your question, John_Marshall.

[Michael Cassutt]

Spacefacts is showing Jeremy Hansen on Crew-7 now--has there been an announcement about that (whether official or unofficial)? As of last I knew, from the pictures posted in the Crew-7 thread recently, Satoshi Furukawa was in training for that flight.

I think it’s official, if furukawa doesn’t fly on crew 7 or Starliner 1, he’ll probably fly on starliner 2. Or crew dragon crew 8.

Neither of these is official. Hansen was a reasonable speculation from one poster many comments upthread: Canada was owed ISS increments in 2019 (that was St. Jacques) and 2024, so some CSA astronaut is likely in the long-duration flow soon.

Don't forget that CSA has a seat on Artemis II.

Michael Cassutt

[zubenelgenubi: Edit]

[John_Marshall]

Neither of these is official. Hansen was a reasonable speculation from one poster many comments upthread: Canada was owed ISS increments in 2019 (that was St. Jacques) and 2024, so some CSA astronaut is likely in the long-duration flow soon.

Don't forget that CSA has a seat on Artemis II.

Thank you, Michael. I had not realized that the Canadian seat was in 2024--I thought it was a little sooner. I had not forgotten about the Artemis II seat; I was thinking that Hansen would have already gotten an assignment and thus assuming that the Artemis seat would go to Kutryk or Sidey-Gibbons.

[ddspaceman]

https://twitter.com/CNSpaceflight/status/1597034999739731969

[ddspaceman]

https://twitter.com/CNAstronauts/status/1597072520402071558

[ddspaceman]

https://twitter.com/CNAstronauts/status/1597073577466941441