NASA has revealed two astronauts that will launch on the agency’s SpaceX Crew-4 mission.
Astronauts Kjell Lindgren, 48, and Bob Hines, 46, have been elected as spacecraft commander and pilot for the mission set to take off in 2022 about a Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station (ISS).
This will be Lindgren’s second trip into space, following a 141-day stay at the space station in 2015 for Expeditions 44 and 45, and Hines will be making his first trip into space.
The team will follow the same path as its predecessors, specifically the two astronauts that pioneered the mission in May 2020 – Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley.
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NASA has revealed two astronauts that will launch on the agency’s SpaceX Crew-4 mission that will soar aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station
NASA teamed up with SpaceX last year with a goal of returning space flight back to American soil.
Prior to the first launch, astronauts heading to the ISS had to take a seat on a Russian rocket – but that all changed on May 30, 2020.
Behnken and Hurley successfully launched from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the ISS, paving the way for other Crew mission.
‘NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is working with the American aerospace industry as companies develop and operate a new generation of spacecraft and launch systems capable of carrying crews to low-Earth orbit and the space station,’ the American space agency shared in a statement.
Kjell Lindgren, 48, is not a stranger to the final frontier. His last stay on the space ship lasted a total of 141 days in 2015 for Expeditions 44 and 35.
‘Commercial transportation to and from the station is providing expanded utility, additional research time, and broader opportunities for discovery on the orbital outpost.’
Crew-3 is set for April of this year, but NASA is already thinking ahead for its 2022 mission.
Lindgren and Hines are the only two so far that the American space agency has revealed, but according to a press release Friday, more will join and some will be from other countries – all of which will board the orbiting laboratory for a long-duration stay.
Lindgren is not a stranger to the final frontier.
His last stay on the space ship lasted a total of 141 days in 2015 for Expeditions 44 and 35.
Bob Hines, 46, was selected as an astronaut in 2017 and will be making his first trip to space next year. Prior to becoming a NASA astronaut, he served in the US military
Lindgren joined NASA in 2009, but prior to that he earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from the U.S. Air Force Academy, a master’s degree in cardiovascular physiology from Colorado State University, and a medical degree from the University of Colorado.
Part of an Air Force family, he was born in Taipei, Taiwan, and spent a good part of his childhood living in England before finishing high school at Robinson Secondary School in Fairfax, Virginia.
Lindgren was also named as one of the Artemis Team astronauts, which is the next mission to send Americans back to the moon.
Hines, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force, was selected as an astronaut in 2017.
He was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, but considers Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to be his hometown.
Lindgren and Hines are the only two so far that the American space agency has revealed, but according to a press release Friday, more will join and some will be from other countries
Hines graduated from Boston University with a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering and went on to earn a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
He is also a graduate of the Air Force Test Pilot school.
Before becoming an astronaut, Hines supported multiple military deployments in the Middle East, Africa and Europe; served as a flight test pilot for the Federal Aviation Administration; and flew as a research pilot at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.