Flight crew assignments

[TJL]

Finally, Hague gets a shot at being spacecraft commander.

Well earned I may add.

[Skylon]

Definitely curious about how this went down - although I don’t expect an answer for years. If it’s true Acaba was pushing for assigning Cardman, did he change his mind, bow to pressure or get outright overruled?

[John_Marshall]

Eight months? How is that going to work? A Soyuz is good for seven, tops.

From what I just heard, the hydrogen peroxide issue has been fixed, and all future expedition Soyuz flights (starting with MS-27) will be eight months long.

[Ben E]

Eight months? How is that going to work? A Soyuz is good for seven, tops.

From what I just heard, the hydrogen peroxide issue has been fixed, and all future expedition Soyuz flights (starting with MS-27) will be eight months long.

I imagine Don Pettit will be kicking himself. He seems keen to spend as long in space as he possibly can!

[Hadley Delta]

Definitely curious about how this went down - although I don’t expect an answer for years. If it’s true Acaba was pushing for assigning Cardman, did he change his mind, bow to pressure or get outright overruled?

Can't help but wonder why rookie Cardman was assigned as commander in the first place.

[dcfowler1]

Definitely curious about how this went down - although I don’t expect an answer for years. If it’s true Acaba was pushing for assigning Cardman, did he change his mind, bow to pressure or get outright overruled?

Can't help but wonder why rookie Cardman was assigned as commander in the first place.

Three of nine Crew Dragon CDRs have been rookies.

The Dragon basically flies itself. Cardman could have remained as commander; NASA was just being cautious with a truncated crew.

[Ben E]

Definitely curious about how this went down - although I don’t expect an answer for years. If it’s true Acaba was pushing for assigning Cardman, did he change his mind, bow to pressure or get outright overruled?

Can't help but wonder why rookie Cardman was assigned as commander in the first place.

Three of nine Crew Dragon CDRs have been rookies.

The Dragon basically flies itself. Cardman could have remained as commander; NASA was just being cautious with a truncated crew.

Yes, but all other rookie Dragon CDRs on Commercial Crew missions (Chari, Mann, Moghbeli and Dominick) have all been test pilots.

To me, this illustrates two points:
1) That a Dragon PLT can move over to CDR quite soon before launch - suggesting the roles are interchangeable?
2) That perhaps NASA will think again about who it selects for CDR positions in the event this kind of eventuality happens again.

With every respect to Cardman, I still wonder why she was selected over Hague as CDR in the first place? There seems little logic to it - selecting a civilian rookie non-test pilot over a military veteran test pilot seems absurd if an experienced CDR might (under extreme circumstances like this one) become remotely necessary. I'm surprised the question wasn't posed to them during the Crew-9 press conference.

[Skylon]

With every respect to Cardman, I still wonder why she was selected over Hague as CDR in the first place? There seems little logic to it - selecting a civilian rookie non-test pilot over a military veteran test pilot seems absurd if an experienced CDR might (under extreme circumstances like this one) become remotely necessary. I'm surprised the question wasn't posed to them during the Crew-9 press conference.

This is purely speculative, and in some cases maybe based on some misunderstandings.

- Was Hague possibly pointed at Starliner, and opted to fly as PLT to Cardman, who may have been more recent on Dragon? Essentially, being told "we know you have been penciled for Starliner 2 or 3, but with the delays what do you think about flying earlier on Dragon - but as PLT?"

- History has shown sometimes what an Astronaut does within the Office can reflect crew assignments. I don't know anything about Cardman's internal assignments, but if she performed well in team-leadership roles maybe it impressed Acaba enough to assign her as CDR. There is some historical precedent to this, as I have seen it cited that for Deke Slayton (perhaps self-servingly) "time in space" mattered less to him than how an Astronaut performed in training. Although the eras and mindsets are certainly different.

[ddspaceman]

Andrew Parsonson
@AndrewParsonson
In what has become a growing trend, a European country has signed an agreement with Axiom to send one of its citizens to space. This time, Czechia will send ESA reserve astronaut Aleš Svoboda as part of its 'Czech Journey to Space' project.

https://europeanspaceflight.com/czech-government-signs-agreement-with-axiom-for-astronaut-mission/

https://twitter.com/AndrewParsonson/status/1832051032995869019

[SMS]

Joshua Kutryk @Astro_Kutryk @astro_luca, under the watchful eye of @NASA_Johnson personnel, geared up and ready to swim down to our lunar habitation module mockup for the first time. Good research. Great training. Over the #moon level of fun.

@USC @USCWrigley @Astro_Megan @Astro_Alneyadi @astro_berrios

https://twitter.com/Astro_Kutryk/status/1837147738502254631