Space

Giant Leaps Begin at Johnson for NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 Commander Nick Hague

.As the center of human spaceflight, NASA's Johnson Space Facility in Houston accommodates a selection of special obligations and privileges. Those feature being the home of NASA's astronaut corps.Among those rocketeers-- Nick Hague-- is right now preparing to launch to the International Spaceport Station alongside Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov on the nine rotational mission under NASA's Office Workers Plan. This will definitely be actually the third launch and second purpose to the space station for Hague, that was actually decided on as a NASA astronaut in 2013 and also has actually spent 203 times in space.Hague was actually birthed and also raised in Kansas however has crisscrossed the country for college as well as career. He made levels from the United States Sky Force Institute in Colorado and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, and he participated in the USA Air Force Test Fly Institution at Edwards Aviation Service Bottom in California. Hague's army profession has taken him to New Mexico, Colorado, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., and included a five-month release to Iraq. Hague moved from the Air Force to the U.S. Room Force in 2020 after working as the Space Force's supervisor of test as well as assessment at the Government.Familiar with brand new places, Hague strongly remembers making his first excursion to Johnson when he was speaking with to join NASA's astronaut corps. "I had no idea what to count on, and it was actually a little frustrating. I knew everyone was actually seeing me and also judging me," he said. "The good news is, despite the fact that I had not been selected at that point, I received another odds a handful of years later on. It's a pretty wonderful area.".Hague completed his astronaut instruction in July 2015 as part of NASA's 21st rocketeer course. He was actually the very first astronaut coming from that team to be assigned to a purpose, which introduced in October 2018 however was actually miscarried soon after takeoff. His next spaceflight developed in 2019, when he participated in three of his friends-- NASA rocketeers Jessica Meir, Christina Koch, and Andrew Morgan-- aboard the International Space Station for Expeditions 59 and also 60.Hague has actually created many memories at Johnson, however one that stands apart is his adventure working onsite amid the 2013 government cessation. "I'm active-duty armed forces so I still pertained to operate," he clarified. "I don't forget being actually onsite and the center being actually completely empty. Having the capacity to ride around an unfilled school on the free-range bikes-- it was actually relaxed as well as surreal." It was actually also an examine of what a lot of Johnson staff members experienced during the course of the widespread and also just how NASA preserves round-the-clock assistance for spaceflight functions regardless of extenuating situations.Hague now expects an additional experience to reduced The planet track. NASA and SpaceX authorities currently consider to introduce the Crew-9 objective no earlier than Wednesday, Sept. 25. The workers is going to take off from Release Sophisticated 40 from the Cape Canaveral Area Troop Station in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 spacecraft and also Monster spacecraft.Hague and Gorbonov are going to become members of the Trip 72 team aboard the terminal. They are going to participate in NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore, Suni Williams, as well as Don Pettit, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin as well as Ivan Vagner, and will definitely devote regarding six months performing scientific research study in microgravity and also completing a range of operational tasks prior to coming back home.Additional information regarding the goal and also staff may be located by adhering to the Crew-9 blog post, @commercial_crew on X, or even business team on Facebook. You may additionally follow @astrohague on X as well as Instagram.