Meet next space station crew who'll be launched to ISS in late spring this year

Image credit: NASA

New Delhi: The International Space Station (ISS), which currently has six visitors from the Earth, will welcome its new guests in late spring.

As per NASA, US astronaut Randy Bresnik, Paolo Nespoli of ESA (European Space Agency), and Sergey Ryazanskiy of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, will be launched to the ISS in the spring of 2017.

This will be Bresnik’s second trip to the space station, the second expedition for Ryazanskiy, and Nespoli’s third trip to the space station. They will be part of Expeditions 52 and 53 where they will conduct more than 250 research investigations and technology demonstrations aboard the orbiting laboratory, not possible on Earth.

One of such experiment is Cardiac Stem Cells which investigates how microgravity affects stem cells and the factors that govern stem cell activity, including physical and molecular changes.

Also, the Cosmic-Ray Energetics and Mass experiment is scheduled to arrive at the station during the crew’s stay and will measure the charges of cosmic rays ranging from hydrogen up through iron nuclei, over a broad energy range.

“Experiments such as these yield benefits for all of humanity, and will enable future long-duration human and robotic exploration into deep space, including the agency’s Journey to Mars,” said NASA .