This morning NASA and JAXA both announced a new addition of Astronauts to launch alongside NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins and Victor Glover Jr. on the first operational launch of SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft.
JAXA announced that Noguchi Soichi is currently preparing and training to fly on board Crew Dragon for the first operational Crew Dragon launch to the International Space Station. Shortly thereafter, NASA announced that Shannon Walker, an American Astronaut, is also going to be joining the other 3 astronauts on this first launch.
JAXA Astronaut Noguchi Soichi has flown in space on 3 separate occasions, he was a Space Shuttle crew member on the STS-114 mission in 2005 and was on board the ISS from December 2009 to June 2010 as a part of Expeditions 22 and 23, launched on a Soyuz rocket.
NASA Astronaut Shannon Walker was brought into the Astronaut class in 2004 and has served 163 days on Expeditions 24 and 25 in 2010 as a flight engineer on the ISS, also launched on a Soyuz rocket.
The first operational crewed mission on SpaceX's Crew Dragon to the ISS will take place after the Demo-2 mission that's expected to take place in mid-to-late May from LC-39a at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This mission will be nearly identical to the Demo-1 mission that took place last year in March, but it will be crewed and will be staying docked on the ISS for an extended period of time.
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