Exciting times ahead for the NASA astronaut corps, as tomorrow (September 22nd at 12:30 EST) NASA will be announcing it’s newest astronaut candidates. It’s still to be determined just how many will be joining the corps as ASCANs (Astronaut Candidates) but based on the most previous classes we can predict anywhere from 8-12 candidates. Even though the focus of this blog (for the time being) is on the active astronaut corps we will be including any posted activities from the astronaut candidates.
While we continue to await the official crew-12 announcement, astronauts on the ISS had a slight change of schedule when the new Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft faced some difficulties heading to the station.
Astronauts on the International Space Station
Zena Cardman
Monday started with preparation for the Cygnus XL cargo ship to arrive on Wednesday. Cardman and Kim spent time on Monday preparing for the approach and rendezvous tasks with Cardman planning to assist Kim with robotic capture using CanadaArm2. Cardman spent further time with Kim collection blood pressure measurements and ultrasound artery scans. Cardman spent the rest of Monday working in the Kibo Life Science Glovebox working on bone stem cell samples. On Wednesday when Cygnus XL was supposed to be approaching and ready for capture Cardman and Kim weren’t at the copula starring it down as it had stopped it’s burn early and would thus come to the station on Thursday in which Cardman monitored and assisted Kim while he grappled the spacecraft with CanadaArm2.
Mike Fincke
Fincke was tasked with science on Monday working inside the Harmony module researching ways to produce vitamins and nutrients for long-term space missions by treating various yeast, yogurt, and fermented milk samples. On Tuesday, Ficke worked with Kimiya Yui on reviewing Cygnus XL mission profile and the various cargo it would be delivering to the station.
Jonny Kim
Kim spent Monday preparing to capture the Cygnus XL cargo ship on Wednesday with assistance from Cardman. Later in the day he worked with JAXA Astronaut Kimiya Yui on the portable glovebox inside the Destiny laboratory processing tissues samples. On Thursday, Kim did a phenomenal job using CanadaArm2 to grapple the Cygnus XL spacecraft which was later berthed to the International Space Station. The Cygnus spacecraft will stay attached to the station until March 2026.
Astronauts in Training
Artemis II
As Reid Wiseman pointed out in his weekly Artemis II training video diary, he stated it was the busiest week of his astronaut career as the crew returned from Kennedy Space Center on Sunday and Viktor Glover and him spent time in Denver, Colorado working with the Flight Operation Experts in the integrated test lab working on off nominal entry procedures. On Tuesday and Wednesday the whole crew was back together for a 48 hour testing simulation for a translunar injection testing where engineers put them through various problems and issues that may arise during the mission. On Thursday they had classes with flight operations before Friday Wiseman and Christina Koch were at the Lockheed Martin building working to review Orion spacecraft cameras. This next week is a crew news conference with the Artemis II crew where we should hopefully get more information on what their final 6 months will look like before launch early next year.
Reid Wiseman
Nothing individual posted
Victor Glover
Nothing individual posted
Christina Koch
Nothing individual posted
Andre Douglas (Backup)
Nothing individual posted
Boeing Starliner – 1
Scott Tingle
Nothing posted
SpaceX Crew-12
Awaiting official crew announcement
Soyuz MS – 28
Christopher Williams
Nothing posted
Soyuz MS – 29
Anil Menon
Nothing posted
Other active Astronauts
Joe Acaba (Chief) – Nothing posted
Nichole Ayers – Post ISS 6 month recovery
Mike Barratt – Nothing posted
Kayla Barron – Nothing posted
Marcos Berrios – Nothing posted
Chris Birch- Nothing posted
Eric Boe – Nothing posted
Stephen Bowen – Nothing posted
Randolph Bresnik – Nothing posted
Deniz Burnham – Nothing posted
Raja Chari – Nothing posted
Luke Delaney – Nothing posted
Matthew Dominick – Nothing posted
Tracy Caldwell-Dyson – Nothing posted
Jack Hathaway – Nothing posted
Nick Hague – Visited Washington DC to speak with members of congress and staff about their mission.
Bob Hines – Nothing posted
Woody Hoburg – Nothing posted
Kjell Lindgren – Nothing posted
Nicole Mann – Nothing posted
Anne McClain – Post ISS 6 month recovery
Jessica Meir – Nothing posted
Jasmin Moghbeli – Nothing posted
Andrew Morgan – Nothing posted
Loral O’hara – Nothing posted
Donald Pettit – Visited Washington DC to speak with members of congress and staff about their mission.
Frank Rubio – Nothing posted
Mark Vande Hei – Nothing posted
Jessica Watkins – Nothing posted
Douglas Wheelock – Nothing posted
Stephanie Wilson – Nothing posted
Jessica Wittner – Nothing posted
Suni Williams – Visited Washington DC to speak with members of congress and staff about their mission.
All information is gathered through NASA blog posts & astronauts various social media accounts that can be found at nasa.gov.