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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

NASA and SpaceX's Crew Dragon Demo-2 [wikipedia.org] mission to the International Space Station (ISS) carried two astronauts, Douglas Hurley and Bob Behnken. Subsequent missions will carry four astronauts, starting with SpaceX Crew-1 [wikipedia.org] in September 2020. Now, the astronauts flying on SpaceX Crew-2 [wikipedia.org] in 2021 have been announced [nasa.gov], and they will likely be launched using "flight-proven" hardware:

NASA and its international partners have assigned crew members for Crew-2, which will be the second operational SpaceX Crew Dragon flight to the International Space Station [nasa.gov] as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough [nasa.gov] and Megan McArthur [nasa.gov] will serve as spacecraft commander and pilot, respectively, for the mission. JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide [iss.jaxa.jp] and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet [esa.int] will join as mission specialists.

Crew-2 is targeted to launch in spring 2021, following the successful completion of both NASA's SpaceX Demo-2 test flight mission, which is expected to return to Earth Aug. 2, and the launch of NASA's SpaceX Crew-1 mission, which is targeted for late September. The Crew-2 astronauts will remain aboard the space station for approximately six months as expedition crew members, along with three crewmates who will launch via a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The increase of the full space station crew complement to seven members – over the previous six – will allow NASA to effectively double the amount of science that can be conducted in space.

SpaceX's third NASA astronaut launch to reuse Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 [teslarati.com]

If Demo-2 Crew Dragon capsule C206 is able to safely return astronauts Behnken and Hurley to Earth and make it back to dry land in one piece, it could become the first American space capsule in history to launch astronauts into orbit twice. The same goes for Crew-1 Falcon 9 booster B1061: if it successfully launches and lands as part of SpaceX's operational astronaut launch debut, it will be refurbished to become the first liquid rocket booster in the world to support two astronaut launches when it flies again on Crew-2.

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