Meet The Crew! NASA SpaceX Crew 10 Announced

NASA's SpaceX Crew-10 mission is gearing up to launch four astronauts for a long-duration stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The crew is made up of

• NASA Astronaut Commander Anne McClain

• NASA Astronaut Pilot Nichole Ayers

• JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Mission Specialist Takuya Onishi

• Roscosmos Cosmonaut Mission Specialist Kirill Pesko
  

The mission marks the 10th crew rotation with SpaceX to the ISS under NASA's Commercial Crew Program and is set to launch to the ISS NET February 2025. While aboard, the international team will engage in scientific investigations and technology demonstrations aimed at preparing humans for future missions and benefiting people on Earth.

Commander Anne McClain: An Experienced Leader

Selected by NASA as an astronaut in 2013, Commander Anne McClain is embarking on her second spaceflight.

A colonel in the U.S. Army, McClain's extensive academic and professional background includes a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, and master’s degrees in Aerospace Engineering, International Security, and Strategic Studies. Her impressive career spans over 2,300 flight hours in 24 rotary and fixed-wing aircraft, including more than 800 in combat. A Spokane, Washington, native, McClain was also an instructor pilot in the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter and a graduate of the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School.

During her first spaceflight, she spent 204 days as a flight engineer during Expeditions 58 and 59 and led two spacewalks, totaling 13 hours and 8 minutes. Since then, she has held various roles, including branch chief and space station assistant to the chief of NASA’s Astronaut Office.

Pilot Nichole Ayers: Breaking New Ground

Nichole Ayers, a major in the U.S. Air Force, is the first member of NASA’s 2021 astronaut class to be named to a crew.

Hailing from Colorado, Ayers graduated from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs with a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and a minor in Russian. She later earned a master’s in Computational and Applied Mathematics from Rice University. Ayers has a distinguished career as an instructor pilot and mission commander in the T-38 ADAIR and F-22 Raptor, leading multinational and multiservice missions worldwide.

With over 1,400 total flight hours, including more than 200 in combat, she brings a wealth of experience to the mission.

Mission Specialist Takuya Onishi: Returning to Space

For JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi, this mission will be his second trip to the space station. After being selected by JAXA in 2009, Onishi served as a flight engineer for Expeditions 48 and 49 and became the first Japanese astronaut to robotically capture the Cygnus spacecraft. He also constructed a new experimental environment aboard Kibo, the station’s Japanese experiment module.

With 113 days in space, Onishi has since become certified as a JAXA flight director, leading the team responsible for operating Kibo from JAXA Mission Control in Tsukuba, Japan.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the University of Tokyo and was a pilot for All Nippon Airways, flying over 3,700 flight hours in the Boeing 767.

Mission Specialist Kirill Peskov: First-Time Flyer

The SpaceX Crew-10 mission marks the first spaceflight for Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. Before his selection as a cosmonaut in 2018, Peskov earned a degree in Engineering from the Ulyanovsk Civil Aviation School and was a co-pilot on the Boeing 757 and 767 aircraft for airlines Nordwind and Ikar.

As a test-cosmonaut since 2020, he has gained additional experience in skydiving, zero-gravity training, scuba diving, and wilderness survival.

The ISS

For more than two decades, the ISS has been a hub for advancing scientific knowledge and demonstrating new technologies, enabling research breakthroughs not possible on Earth.

The station serves as a critical testbed for NASA to understand and overcome the challenges of long-duration spaceflight and to expand commercial opportunities in low Earth orbit.The Crew-10 mission is set to contribute significantly to these ongoing efforts, paving the way for future space exploration and scientific advancements.