The active astronaut corps continues to shrink in size as this week it was announced Barry “Butch” Wilmore had retired from NASA. This comes a week after fellow astronaut Kate Rubins announced her retirement. This doesn’t come as a huge surprise considering the uncertainty of availability of crewed flights in the future. With the possibility of 8-month crewed missions to the ISS until it’s retirement in 2030 and the delays in the Artemis program it’s unclear if the Commercial Space Stations (CLD) will warrant enough seats for astronauts to stick around. There was also another delay in the announcement of the next astronaut class. What was supposed to be announced in July had been pushed to August and now further pushed to September.
Despite the unknowns the corps continues to work hard as they had another busy week with the arrival of Crew-10 back on earth.
Astronauts on the International Space Station
Nichole Ayers
It was a busy week for the Crew-10 astronauts as they headed back down to Earth. Before they made their journey home they helped assist newly arrived Crew-11 with their understanding of life on the International Space Station. On Tuesday, Ayers did more medical research attaching electrodes to her legs after working out in order to research effects of bones and muscles in microgravity. After a busy 145 days in space, Ayers assisted McClain in the reentry phase of flight as they touched down in the Pacific Ocean on August 9th.
Zena Cardman
On Monday, Cardman continued to get acclimated to life in space and on the station learning from cosmonaut Ryzhikov the location of emergency hardware on the ISS, something Cardman would already be familiar with while training in Houston. Cardman also spent Monday working with her fellow Crew-11 crewmates removing equipment from their Dragon Endeavour onto the station. On Tuesday, after the change of command ceremony we wrote about here. Cardman and McClain transferred station emergency equipment from Dragon Endurance to Dragon Endeavour working together as commanders they also spent time working in the Columbus module setting up research to study manufacturing high-quality optical fibers in space. Cardman also spent time on Tuesday discussing life in space with WTKR-TV in Norfolk, Virginia. Wednesday was an off-day for Cardman and Crew-11 as they had spent the past few days extremely busy setting up their next 6+ months on station and helping prepare for Crew-10 departure on Friday.
Mike Fincke
Fincke like the rest of his Crew-11 crewmates spent time on Sunday and Monday getting used to life in space and on station but for Fincke the acclimation was more familiar as he had been to both space and station before, albeit 10+ years ago. Fincke alongside Kimiya Yui spent time on Tuesday researching how blood flow from the brain to the heart under the conditions of microgravity. Fincke had also joined Cardman on the broadcast with WTKR-TV. As with Cardman, Fincke spent Wednesday relaxing after a busy few days.
Jonny Kim
Kim had a bit of a different week than the rest of his USOS crewmates. As he’s now head of the USOS segment on the ISS he not only helped manage the arrival of Crew-11 and departure of Crew-10 but his mission still is only halfway done. On Monday he spent time with Fincke, teaching him how to use the ARED otherwise known as the advanced resistive exercise device, one of the multiple workout equipment on board the ISS. Fincke will already have learned how to used ARED on the ground but being taught again on the ISS by Kim was most likely beneficial. Kim also spent Wednesday relaxing as he had assisted Crew-10 and Crew-11 since Saturday.
Anne McClain
As commander of Crew-10, McClain was focused this week on preparing her Dragon Endurance on his voyage home, staying up to date with both weather and any other emergency plans. McClain joined Cardman on Tuesday transferring emergency equipment between their Dragon capsules before her departure on Thursday. After arriving back on earth on Friday McClain now has accumulated 351 days in space, just short of a full year but now sits as the 4th longest time in space for an American woman.
Astronauts in Training
Artemis II
Reid Wiseman
Nothing posted
Victor Glover
Nothing posted
Christina Koch
Nothing posted
Andre Douglas (Backup)
Nothing posted
Boeing Starliner – 1
Scott Tingle
Nothing posted
Soyuz MS – 28
Christopher Williams
Nothing posted
Soyuz MS – 29
Anil Menon
On Wednesday, Menon spent time working on various medical emergency training. He also announced he works at Memorial Hermann medical center in Houston, Texas on the weekends.
Other active Astronauts
Joe Acaba (Chief) – Nothing posted
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 – Post ISS 6 month recovery
Bob Hines – Nothing posted
Woody Hoburg – Nothing posted
Kjell Lindgren – Nothing posted
Nicole Mann – Nothing posted
Megan McArthur – Nothing posted
Jessica Meir – Nothing posted
Jasmin Moghbeli – Nothing posted
Andrew Morgan – Nothing posted
Loral O’hara – Nothing posted
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 – Post ISS 6 month recovery
All information is gathered through NASA blog posts & NASA astronauts various social media accounts.