N° 39–2023: The Huginn mission flies as Andreas arrives at the Space Station
27 August 2023
The SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance carrying ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen and Crew-7’s NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, JAXA astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and Roscosmos astronaut Konstantin Borisov, docked to the International Space Station at 15:16 CEST today, marking the official start of Andreas’s Huginn mission.
Piloting the Dragon
Crew-7 with its four astronauts launched on top a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, US at 09:27 CEST on 26 August. Andreas was the pilot on the Crew Dragon, ensuring the spacecraft’s performance and systems as they made their way to the Space Station. This was the first time a European astronaut piloted the Crew Dragon.
After a 30 hour rendezvous, they arrived at Earth’s orbiting laboratory and docked on the International Space Station.
Awaiting to welcome Crew-7 on the Space Station was Frank Rubio, Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin, who arrived on a Soyuz rocket in September 2022, as well as Stephen Bowen, Warren Hoburg, Sultan Al Neyadi and Andrey Fedyaev of Crew-6.
Ready to gather knowledge
With Andreas onboard, the Huginn mission has started. A mission where Andreas will make the Space Station his workplace and home for the next six months. He will conduct more than 30 European experiments and technology demonstrations, ranging from climate and health to space research for humankind on Earth.
Around mid-September as Expedition 69 ends and 70 begins, Andreas will become the Space Station commander taking over from the current commander Sergey Prokopyev. Andreas will remain commander for the rest of his Huginn mission, which will amount to a little over five months, the longest for a European astronaut.
Follow the Huginn mission
Andreas will share his mission from orbit via his Facebook , Twitter, and Instagram. You can learn more about the Huginn mission, including the science that Andreas will perform, on the ESA’s Huginn page.
Further information
Information on the Huginn mission:
Social Media
Twitter: @esa @esaspaceflight, @astro_andreas
Instagram: Europeanspaceagency, astro_andreas
Facebook: EuropeanSpaceAgency, ESAAndreasMogensen
YouTube: ESA
Images
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images
https://photolibrary.esa.int/home-page/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/andreasmogensen/
Terms and conditions for using ESA images:
www.esa.int/spaceinimages/ESA_Multimedia/Copyright_Notice_Images
For questions or more information related to ESA images, please contact directly spaceinimages@esa.int.
Videos
Video B-roll of Andreas training for the Huginn mission is available on ESA’s videos for professionals:
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2023/04/Huginn_Mission_-_The_Space_Messenger
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos
Terms and conditions for using ESA videos:
https://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Terms_and_Conditions
For questions or more information related to ESA videos, please contact directly spaceinvideos@esa.int.
About the European Space Agency
The European Space Agency (ESA) provides Europe’s gateway to space.
ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, created in 1975, with the mission to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space delivers benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
ESA has 22 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Slovenia, Latvia and Lithuania are Associate Members.
ESA has established formal cooperation with five Member States of the EU. Canada takes part in some ESA programmes under a Cooperation Agreement.
By coordinating the financial and intellectual resources of its members, ESA can undertake programmes and activities far beyond the scope of any single European country. It is working in particular with the EU on implementing the Galileo and Copernicus programmes as well as with Eumetsat for the development of meteorological missions.
Learn more about ESA at www.esa.int
For further information:
ESA Newsroom and Media Relations Office
Email: media@esa.int