NASA revealed Friday the list of crew members, for future missions to the International Space Station. U.S. Navy Captain Scott Tingle and veteran Randy Bresnik will be among the fortunate personnel. Two new expeditions are scheduled for September 2017.
The space station is currently the place of many science experiments and technology demonstrations. According to Chris Cassidy, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Tingle and Bresnik will do an excellent job.
Scott Tingle is a member of NASA’s 2009 astronaut class and a graduate student from Purdue University. In January, the 50-year-old man began his training sessions in Russia, for expeditions 53 and 54. Astronauts are expected to come back to Earth in March 2018.
The Navy captain has Master of Science degree, earned in Purdue University in 1988. He has a specialty in fluid mechanics and propulsion, as reported by the Purdue Exponent, an independent student newspaper.
He records more than 4,000 flight hours in 48 types of aircraft, including combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. His honor awards include a Meritorious Service Medal, three Air Medals, six Navy Commendation Medals and four Navy Achievement Medals, said the Purdue Exponent.
In September 2017, cosmonauts Ivan Vagner and veteran Alexander Skvortsov from the Russian space agency Roscosmos will accompany Tingle. They will join the Expedition 53 crew. The latter is composed by Jack Fischer from NASA, Paolo Nespoli from the European Space Agency and Fyodor Yurchikhin of Roscosmos.
U.S. Veteran Bresnik will join the International Space Station in November
Bresnik, alongside Sergey Ryazansky of Roscosmos and Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, will join the team in November. Bresnik is a retired colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps. He has accumulated more than 6.000 hours in 81 different types of aircraft.
The U.S. veteran was selected as an astronaut in 2004, said NASA in a press release issued Friday. Bresnik’s first space flight was in 2009 aboard space shuttle Atlantis, which embarked its final mission in July 2011. He also carried out two spacewalks of nearly 12 hours, counted together.
Since November 2000, the International Space Station has been visited by more than 200 people and several commercial spacecraft, said NASA. The space laboratory is “giant step” for NASA, which wants to explore asteroids and Mars in future missions.
“The space station is a convergence of science, technology and human innovation that enables us to demonstrate new technologies and make research breakthroughs not possible on Earth.” said NASA on Saturday.
Source: NASA