Introducing Commercial Crew-7

Introducing Commercial Crew-7
by Staff Writers
Paris (ESA) Jun 22, 2023

The final two crewmembers of Crew-7, for which ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen is the pilot, have been announced. They will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) later this summer.

In addition to Andreas and NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli who were already announced as Crew-7 pilots, Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and Roscosmos astronaut Konstantin Borisov will take two seats in SpaceX's Crew Dragon.

They will both be mission specialists on Crew-7, which is led by Jasmin as commander of Crew-7. Andreas will be the first European pilot on SpaceX's Crew Dragon, where he will be responsible for the Crew Dragon's systems and performance, leading the way and representing Europe into space.

They will launch together from Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA, and the four of them will stay around six months on the Space Station, conducting science and maintaining the outpost as part of Expedition 69 and 70.

Satoshi Furukawa was selected as an astronaut in 1999 and finished his training in 2001. He has a doctorate in medicine, specialising in gastrointestinal surgery. He is a qualified mission specialist with NASA, a flight engineer for Soyuz launches and took part in the 13th expedition NEEMO, staying ten days in an underwater laboratory off the coast of Florida.

In 2011, he flew in a Soyuz spacecraft to the Space Station for a 165-day mission as part of Expedition 28 and 29 and has since 2014 been head of JAXA's Space Biomedical Research Group, focusing on promoting research in space medicine .

Konstantin
The fourth seat will be filled by Konstantin Borisov, who was selected for astronaut training in 2018. He has two Masters, one in Science in Operations Research and Systems Analysis and another in Aircraft building. This will be Konstantin's first journey to space.

Jasmin
Jasmin "Jaws" Moghbeli is the Commander of Crew-7, taking the responsibility of all phases of the flight, from launch to reentry. With a background as a test pilot in the US Marine Corps, she has flown over 2000 hours in more than 25 aircraft and completed a master's degree in aerospace engineering during her time as a test pilot. She started her astronaut training in 2017 and has worked on developing the Human Landing System, the lander for the Artemis programme that will take humans to the surface of the Moon. Crew-7 will be her first spaceflight.