NASA announced crew assignments for SpaceX Crew-14, a long-duration mission to the International Space Station scheduled to launch no earlier than spring 2027. The four-person crew includes astronauts from NASA, Japan's space agency, and Russia's space program.
NASA astronauts Kayla Barron and Chris Birch will serve as spacecraft commander and pilot, respectively. JAXA astronaut Makoto Suwa and Roscosmos cosmonaut Arutyun Kiviryan will serve as mission specialists. After docking, the crew will join the space station's Expedition 75/76.
This will be Barron's second flight to the space station. She flew aboard SpaceX Crew-3 in 2021, spending 177 days in space and completing two spacewalks. She earned degrees in systems engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy and nuclear engineering from the University of Cambridge, and is a U.S. Navy submarine warfare officer. Most recently, she supported development of technologies for NASA's Artemis program.
Birch was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2021 and is making her first spaceflight. She holds a doctorate in biological engineering from MIT and previously taught bioengineering at UC Riverside and scientific writing at Caltech. She has served as a capsule communicator supporting crews aboard the space station and the Artemis II mission, and as crew lead for Expedition 72.
For Suwa, a JAXA astronaut selected in 2023, this will be his first spaceflight. Before joining the space program, he worked with the World Bank Group and served as a Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteer in Rwanda and with the United Nations World Meteorological Organization. He holds a doctorate in geosciences from Princeton University.
Kiviryan is a Roscosmos cosmonaut making his first trip to the space station. He graduated from the Baltic State Technical University in 2015 as an engineer specializing in rocket science and was selected for the Gagarin Research and Test Cosmonaut Training Center in 2021. SpaceX Crew-14 is the 14th commercial crew rotation under NASA's Low Earth Orbit Program. The crew will conduct scientific investigations and technology demonstrations to prepare for future Moon and Mars exploration.