Meet the SpaceX Astronauts Heading to Space This Weekend

SpaceX will launch another crew to the International Space Station this weekend, marking the fourth astronaut mission for the commercial spaceflight company.

SpaceX’s Crew-3 mission comprises NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, and Kayla Barron, plus Matthias Maurer from the European Space Agency.

This week NASA released a short video (below) featuring a bunch of fun, rapid-fire questions to help space fans get to know the four astronauts before they begin their six-month stay aboard the orbiting outpost 250 miles above Earth.

Find out which astronaut cites Life is Beautiful as their favorite movie, and what aspect of astronaut training each crew member has found most challenging.

They also reveal how they would spend a day on the moon if they had the chance, and the advice they would give to their younger self.

Other important information such as their favorite pizza topping and their dream superpower is also revealed by each astronaut.

This weekend’s mission will see three of the four crew members heading to space for the first time. Only Marshburn has experience of going into orbit, with two earlier ISS missions under his belt.

Commenting on the upcoming space trip, Marshburn said: “As always, there’s going to be a really robust backbone of science that we’re going to be executing throughout our entire mission. That’s going to peak in December when the SpaceX Dragon arrives with a full compartment of more experiments for us to be doing.”

Some of the crew will also conduct spacewalks as part of ongoing work to upgrade the station’s power supply with new solar arrays.

For a longer, more in-depth interview with the Crew-3 astronauts, check out this news conference from last week in which the crewmembers shared their thoughts about the approaching mission.

If you’re interested in watching a livestream of the launch this weekend, then Digital Trends has you covered.

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