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By NASA
As the hub of human spaceflight, NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston holds a variety of unique responsibilities and privileges. Those include being the home of NASA’s astronaut corps.
One of those astronauts – Nick Hague – is now preparing to launch to the International Space Station along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov on the ninth rotational mission under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. This will be the third launch and second mission to the space station for Hague, who was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2013 and has spent 203 days in space.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 Commander Nick Hague smiles and gives two thumbs up during the crew equipment interface test at SpaceX’s Dragon refurbishing facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.SpaceX Hague was born and raised in Kansas but has crisscrossed the country for college and career. He earned degrees from the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, and he attended the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Hague’s military career has taken him to New Mexico, Colorado, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., and included a five-month deployment to Iraq. Hague transferred from the Air Force to the U.S. Space Force in 2020 after serving as the Space Force’s director of test and evaluation at the Pentagon.
No stranger to new places, Hague vividly recalls making his first trip to Johnson when he was interviewing to join NASA’s astronaut corps. “I had no idea what to expect, and it was a bit overwhelming. I knew everyone was watching me and judging me,” he said. “Luckily, even though I wasn’t selected then, I got another chance a few years later. It’s a pretty magical place.”
Hague completed his astronaut training in July 2015 as part of NASA’s 21st astronaut class. He was the first astronaut from that group to be assigned to a mission, which launched in October 2018 but was aborted shortly after takeoff. His next spaceflight occurred in 2019, when he joined three of his classmates – NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Christina Koch, and Andrew Morgan – aboard the International Space Station for Expeditions 59 and 60.
NASA astronaut Nick Hague suits up for spacewalk training in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. NASA/James Blair Hague has made many memories at Johnson, but one that stands out is his experience working onsite amid the 2013 government shutdown. “I’m active-duty military so I still came to work,” he explained. “I remember being onsite and the center being completely empty. Being able to ride around an empty campus on the free-range bikes – it was peaceful and surreal.” It was also a preview of what many Johnson employees experienced during the pandemic and how NASA maintains round-the-clock support for spaceflight operations regardless of extenuating circumstances.
Hague now looks ahead to another journey to low Earth orbit. NASA and SpaceX officials currently plan to launch the Crew-9 mission no earlier than Wednesday, Sept. 25. The crew will lift off from Launch Complex 40 from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft.
Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov (left) and NASA astronaut Nick Hague during a visit to Kennedy Space Center for training. SpaceX Hague and Gorbonov will become members of the Expedition 72 crew aboard the station. They will join NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore, Suni Williams, and Don Pettit, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, and will spend about six months conducting scientific research in microgravity and completing a range of operational activities before returning home.
More details about the mission and crew can be found by following the Crew-9 blog, @commercial_crew on X, or commercial crew on Facebook. You can also follow @astrohague on X and Instagram.
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By NASA
The International Space Station is pictured from the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour during a fly around.NASA NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov are headed to the International Space Station for the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission in September. Once on station, these crew members will support scientific investigations that include studies of blood clotting, effects of moisture on plants grown in space, and vision changes in astronauts.
Here are details on some of the work scheduled during the Crew-9 expedition:
Blood cell development in space
Megakaryocytes Orbiting in Outer Space and Near Earth (MeF1) investigates how environmental conditions affect the development and function of megakaryocytes and platelets. Megakaryocytes, large cells found in bone marrow, and platelets, pieces of these cells, play important roles in blood clotting and immune response.
“Understanding the development and function of megakaryocytes and platelets during long-duration spaceflight is crucial to safeguarding the health of astronauts,” said Hansjorg Schwertz, principal investigator, at the University of Utah. “Sending megakaryocyte cell cultures into space offers a unique opportunity to explore their intricate differentiation process. Microgravity also may impact other blood cells, so the insights we gain are likely to enhance our overall comprehension of how spaceflight influences blood cell production.”
Results could provide critical knowledge about the risks of changes in inflammation, immune responses, and clot formation in spaceflight and on the ground.
Scanning electron-microscopy image of human platelets prior to launch to the International Space Station.University of Utah/Megakaryocytes PI Team Patches for NICER
The Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) telescope on the exterior of the space station measures X-rays emitted by neutron stars and other cosmic objects to help answer questions about matter and gravity.
In May 2023, NICER developed a “light leak” that allows sunlight to interfere with daytime measurements. Special patches designed to cover some of the damage will be installed during a future spacewalk, returning the instrument to around-the-clock operation.
“This will be the fourth science observatory and first X-ray telescope in orbit to be repaired by astronauts,” said principal investigator Keith Gendreau at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “In just a year, we diagnosed the problem, designed and tested a solution, and delivered it for launch. The space station team — from managers and safety experts to engineers and astronauts — helped us make it happen. We’re looking forward to getting back to normal science operations.”
This view shows NICER’s 56 X-ray concentrators. Astronauts plan to cover some of them with special patches on a future spacewalk. NASA Vitamins for vision
Some astronauts experience vision changes, a condition called Spaceflight-Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome. The B Complex investigation tests whether a daily B vitamin supplement can prevent or mitigate this problem and assesses how genetics may influence individual response.
“We still do not know exactly what causes this syndrome, and not everyone gets it,” said Sara Zwart, principal investigator, at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Houston. “It is likely many factors, and biological variations that make some astronauts more susceptible than others.”
One such variation could be related to a metabolic pathway that requires B vitamins to function properly. Inefficiencies in this pathway can affect the inner lining of blood vessels, resulting in leaks that may contribute to vision changes. Providing B vitamins known to affect blood vessel function positively could minimize issues in genetically at-risk astronauts.
“The concept of this study is based on 13 years of flight and ground research,” Zwart said. “We are excited to finally flight test a low-risk countermeasure that could mitigate the risk on future missions, including those to Mars.”
NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei conducts a vision exam on the International Space StationNASA Watering the space garden
As people travel farther from Earth for longer, growing food becomes increasingly important. Scientists conducted many plant growth experiments on the space station using its Veggie hardware, including Veg-01B, which demonstrated that ‘Outredgeous’ red romaine lettuce is suitable for crop production in space.
Plant Habitat-07 uses this lettuce to examine how moisture conditions affect the nutritional quality and microbial safety of plants. The Advanced Plant Habitat controls humidity, temperature, air, light, and soil moisture, creating the precise conditions needed for the experiment.
Using a plant known to grow well in space removes a challenging variable from the equation, explained Chad Vanden Bosch, principal investigator at Redwire, and this lettuce also has been proven to be safe to consume when grown in space.
“For crews building a base on the Moon or Mars, tending to plants may be low on their list of responsibilities, so plant growth systems need to be automated,” Bosch said. “Such systems may not always provide the perfect growing conditions, though, so we need to know if plants grown in suboptimal conditions are safe to consume.”
This preflight image shows lettuce grown under control (left) and flood (right) moisture treatments. Plant Habitat-07 team Melissa Gaskill
International Space Station Research Communications Team
NASA’s Johnson Space Center
Search this database of scientific experiments to learn more about those mentioned in this article.
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