NASA's Crew-4 Have Arrived At The Space Station - What's Next For The Astronauts?

A batch of four fresh astronauts have arrived at the International Space Station (ISS), carried by a SpaceX Crew Dragon craft. The four members of Crew-4, given that name because it is the fourth operational flight of a Crew Dragon, include three NASA astronauts: Mission Commander Kjell Lindgren, Pilot Bob Hines, and Mission Specialist Jessica Watkins, plus a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut, Mission Specialist Samantha Cristoforetti (via NASA).

The four launched from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 3:52 a.m. ET on Wednesday, April 27, and arrived at the space station later that morning at 9:15 a.m. ET (via NASA).

"Liftoff! The past few days at Kennedy Space Center have been inspiring and busy with the return of the Axiom crew and now the successful launch of Crew-4 astronauts to the International Space Station," said Bill Nelson, the administrator of NASA. "Aboard station, Kjell, Bob, Jessica, and Samantha will carry out research investigations that will help NASA prepare for longer duration stays on the Moon – and eventually Mars. These missions wouldn't be possible without the dedicated NASA and SpaceX teams here on Earth. Godspeed, Crew-4!"

The four were welcomed on board by the current ISS crew, which includes both current NASA and ESA astronauts and cosmonauts from the Russian space agency Roscosmos. Despite rising tensions between Russia and the U.S. and Europe following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, operations on the ISS remain normal with Russian, American, and European astronauts working and living together.

The crew will join a busy space station. On Thursday, April 28, two Roscosmos engineers, Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev, are performing a spacewalk. They will work on activating the new European robotic arm, which is attached to the Russian Nauka module (via NASA). The two left the station at 10:58 a.m. ET and will work on other tasks while outside the station as well as monitoring the robotic arm, like installing extra handrails onto the new module and removing thermal blankets and locks from the arm.

The Crew-4 astronauts will contribute to research on the ISS over the coming months including work on materials science, health technologies, and plant science (via NASA). "NASA, SpaceX and our international partners have worked tirelessly to ensure that the International Space Station continues conducting important research in microgravity, and working on a whole host of activities that benefit humanity and opens up access to more people in space," said Kathryn Lueders of NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate.

Space will be tight on the ISS for a few days as there are currently 11 people on board. This is within what the station can host, but larger than a typical crew of between four and eight people. This won't last long as four members of the station's Expedition 67 crew who came as Crew-3 –- NASA's Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, and Kayla Barron, plus ESA's Matthias Maurer — will return home from the station shortly, and this return could be notable for Star Wars fans, possibly occurring on May 4th (via space.com).