NASA and ESA Assign Astronauts to ISS Mission

Last week, NASA and the ESA announced the assignment of the commander and pilot of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 mission to the International Space Station. Two mission specialists that will be joining the crew will be announced later after a review by NASA and its international partners. SpaceX Crew-7 will launch no sooner than 2023.

ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen and NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli. Credit: NASA

The two astronauts announced, Jasmin Moghbeli and Andreas Mogensen will be joining Crew-7 as commander and pilot respectively. The crew will consist of four astronauts once mission specialists are chosen.

This will be the first spaceflight for commander Moghbeli, who became a NASA astronaut in 2017. She holds a master's degree in aerospace engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. She has logged over 2,000 hours of flight time on 150 missions in more than 25 different aircraft during her time as an AH-1W Super Cobra pilot and Marine Corps test pilot.

Mogensen, the pilot for Crew-7, has been to space before on a 10-day mission for the ESA in 2015 when he became the first Danish person to go to space. He holds a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering from Imperial College London and a doctorate in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

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