KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. – NASA has selected a fourth astronaut to join the next human spaceflight mission to the International Space Station.
The space agency announced it has tapped Kayla Barron to serve as a mission specialist for SpaceX’s next Crew Dragon launch, which is slated for Oct. 23.
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It will be Barron’s first spaceflight as she recently became a NASA astronaut in January 2020.
Barron was born in Pocatello, Idaho but calls Richland, Washington her hometown. She has a bachelor’s degree in systems engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland and continued her studies to obtain her master’s degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Cambridge in England as a Gates Cambridge Scholar.
Barron will be the only female space explorer among the mission’s international crew. NASA astronauts Raja Chari and Tom Marshburn will travel onboard Dragon along with European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer.
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The four will make the fourth trip with Dragon to the ISS carrying humans. It will also be the third operational long-duration stay, according to NASA.
Crew-3 members will begin their six-month stay as Crew-2 is wrapping up their final days on the ISS. For now, Crew-2 is slated to return to Earth no earlier than Oct. 31.