NASA and its international partners have named several future International Space Station expedition crews. They include NASA astronauts Steve Swanson, Reid Wiseman, Barry Wilmore and Terry Virts.
Swanson was born in Syracuse, N.Y., but considers Steamboat Springs, Colo., his hometown. Wiseman is from Baltimore and is a commander in the U.S. Navy. Wilmore, a captain in the U.S. Navy, is from Mount Juliet, Tenn. Virts, a colonel in the U.S. Air Force, was born in Baltimore, but considers Columbia, Md., his hometown.
Swanson and his two Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) crewmates will join Expedition 39 in progress. That expedition will begin in March 2014. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata, the expedition’s commander; NASA’s Richard Mastracchio; and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin already will be aboard.
Swanson and his crewmates are scheduled to launch in April 2014. Expedition 39 will consist of the following crew members:
- Wakata, station commander
- Mastracchio, flight engineer
- Tyurin, flight engineer
- Swanson, flight engineer
- Alexander Skvortsov of Roscomos, flight engineer
- Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos, flight engineer
Expedition 40 will begin in May 2014. The second half of the crew is scheduled to launch in June 2014. Expedition 40 will consist of the following crew members:
- Swanson, station commander
- Skvortsov, flight engineer
- Artemyev, flight engineer
- Wiseman, flight engineer
- Maxim Suraev of Roscosmos, flight engineer
- Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency (ESA), flight engineer
Expedition 41 will begin in September 2014. The remainder of the crew is scheduled to launch in October 2014. Expedition 41 will consist of the following crew members:
- Suraev, station commander
- Wiseman, flight engineer
- Gerst, flight engineer
- Wilmore, flight engineer
- Yelena Serova of Roscosmos, flight engineer
- Alexander Samoukutyaev of Roscosmos, flight engineer
Expedition 42 will begin in November 2014. The other half of the team is scheduled to launch in December 2014. Once on the station, Expedition 42 will include the following crew members:
- Wilmore, station commander
- Serova, flight engineer
- Samoukutyaev, flight engineer
- Virts, flight engineer
- Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA, flight engineer
