Meet the SpaceX Crew-8 astronauts launching to the ISS on March 1

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Four new astronauts will launch to the International Space Station on Friday as part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission.

Crew-8the eighth operational commercial crew mission for NASA, will launch on March 1 at 12:04 a.m. EST (0504 GMT). Kennedy Space Center in Florida using the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavor spacecraft, located atop a Falcon 9 rocket. The Crew Dragon The spacecraft will then dock with the orbiting laboratory around 7 a.m. EST (2 a.m. GMT) the next day.

The crew includes NASA astronauts Matthew Dominiek (commander), Michael Barratt (pilot) and Jeanette Eps (mission specialist) together with mission specialist Alexander Grebenkin, from the Russian space agency Roscosmos. During their six-month stay in roomthe astronauts will conduct more than 200 scientific experiments and technology demonstrations, including research that will support human exploration beyond low Earth orbit.

Related: SpaceX rolls out rocket and capsule to launch Crew-8 astronaut (photos)

Friday’s launch will be the first for all crew members except Barrett, who will be making his third flight and second extended stay on the space station. Below you will find more information about each of them.

Matthew Dominick (NASA)

a man in a blue jumpsuit sits in a white room with black furniture. He smiles.

a man in a blue jumpsuit sits in a white room with black furniture. He smiles.

Matthew Dominick, the commander of Crew-8, is a 42-year-old US Navy test pilot who joined NASA as astronaut candidate in 2017. Dominick has more than 1,600 flight hours in 28 aircraft, 400 carrier landings and 61 combat missions on his resume. When Dominick was selected as an astronaut candidate in June 2017, he was at sea on the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), serving in the U.S. Navy as a naval aviator and department chief for Strike Fighter Squadron 115.

Dominick was born and raised in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, where his parents still live. He is married to Faith Dominick, with whom he says he shares two daughters NASA biography. Dominick holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the University of San Diego with minors in physics and mathematics. After graduating in 2005, he was commissioned through the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) and attended basic flight training at Naval Air Station Pensacola. In 2007 he was appointed a naval aviator.

He completed F/A-18 Super Hornet training and then served two deployments with Strike Fighter Squadron 143 (VFA-143) before attending the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, where he earned a Master of Science in systems engineering. He later graduated from the United States Navy Test pilot School and was assigned to Air Test Evaluation Squadron 23 (VX-23), where he served as the developmental flight test project officer for a variety of aircraft carrier suitability test programs. After a two-year training course astronaut candidate in 2019, Dominick is now an active duty US Navy astronaut. While waiting for his chance to fly in space, he was also promoted to Navy commander in 2020.

Michael Barratt (NASA)

a man in a blue jumpsuit sits in a white room with black furniture. his elbow rests on a table.a man in a blue jumpsuit sits in a white room with black furniture. his elbow rests on a table.

a man in a blue jumpsuit sits in a white room with black furniture. his elbow rests on a table.

Michael Barratt, the pilot of Crew-8, is a 64-year-old doctor specializing in… aerospace medicine. He served as a flight surgeon for NASA before being selected as an astronaut candidate in 2000. Barratt has played a critical role in developing NASA’s space medicine initiatives for both the Shuttle-Mir program and the International Space Station (ISS).

Barratt was born in Vancouver, Washington, but considers Camas, Washington, his birthplace. He holds a Doctor of Medicine degree from Northwestern University and is board certified in both internal and aerospace medicine. He is married to Dr. Michelle Lynne Sasynuik and according to him has five children official biography.

Barratt has spent a total of 212 days in space on two previous spaceflights, including Expedition 19/20 in 2009 – which saw the transition from three to six permanent ISS crew members – and STS-133 in 2011, near the end of the mission. NASA. Space Shuttle Program. Barratt served as flight engineer for Expedition 19/20 and conducted two spacewalks during this mission. On the long-duration flight mission, crews studied bone loss, cardiac atrophy, changes in the immune system and nutritional dynamics in microgravity. STS-133, Space Shuttle Discovery’s final mission, delivered the permanent multifunction module and the fourth Express Logistics Carrier to the space station.

Barratt led the Human Research Program at NASA Johnson Space Center from January 2012 through April 2013 and provided expertise in human factors and space medical risks for newly developed space vehicles for the Commercial Crew and Artemis programs.

Jeanette J. Epps (NASA)

a woman in a blue jumpsuit stares inspiringly into the distance. she is standing in a white room with many glass panels.a woman in a blue jumpsuit stares inspiringly into the distance. she is standing in a white room with many glass panels.

a woman in a blue jumpsuit stares inspiringly into the distance. she is standing in a white room with many glass panels.

Jeanette Epps, Crew-8’s mission specialist, was selected as an astronaut candidate in 2009. Before joining NASA, she worked at Ford Motor Co. and the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

The 53-year-old is from Syracuse, New York and holds a Bachelor of Science in physics from LeMoyne College and a Master of Science, as well as a doctorate in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland at College Park. As a NASA Fellow during graduate school, Epps wrote several highly regarded journal and conference articles, according to her NASA biography.

During her time at Ford Motor Company, she received both a provisional patent and a U.S. patent for her research. She later worked as a technical intelligence officer for the CIA. Since becoming an astronaut, she has worked on the Generic Joint Operation Panel on space station crew efficiency, as a crew support astronaut for two expeditions, and as the lead capsule communicator at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Epps was previously assigned to NASA Boeing Starliner-1 mission, but was reassigned due to delays in mission development, making Crew-8 her first spaceflight. During the upcoming mission, she will help monitor the spacecraft for launch and reentry.

Alexander Grebenkin (Roscosmos)

a man in a blue jumpsuit stares into the distance. He sits in a white room with many glass panels.a man in a blue jumpsuit stares into the distance. He sits in a white room with many glass panels.

a man in a blue jumpsuit stares into the distance. He sits in a white room with many glass panels.

Alexander Sergeevich Grebenkin, Crew-8‘s mission specialist, served in the Russian Armed Forces Air Force before joining Roscosmos as a cosmonaut candidate in 2018.

Grebenkin graduated from the Irkutsk High Military Aviation School in Irkutsk, Russia, majoring in engineering, maintenance and repair of aircraft radio navigation systems. He said the 41-year-old also holds a degree in radio communications, broadcasting and television from the Moscow Technical University of Communications and Informatics. a statement from NASA.

During his time in the Russian Armed Forces, Grebenkin worked as an aircraft readiness technician and engineer preparing aircraft, and later served as head of a military unit’s regulatory and repair group. Since becoming a cosmonaut, he has participated in fake missions Soil, with Crew-8 representing its first spaceflight. He will serve as a flight engineer during Expeditions 70/71 on the space station.

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