Armenian-born Roscosmos cosmonaut Harutyun Kiviryan has been selected for the SpaceX Crew-14 mission, which is scheduled to travel to the International Space Station (ISS) in spring 2027. It will be his first spaceflight.
The four-member crew will be commanded by NASA astronaut Kayla Barron, with Chris Birch serving as pilot. The mission specialists will be Makoto Suwa of Japan’s JAXA and Harutyun Kiviryan.
After docking with the ISS, the crew will join the members of Expeditions 75/76. The astronauts are expected to conduct scientific experiments aboard the station and participate in testing new technologies.
Crew-14 is the 14th commercial crewed mission carried out as part of NASA’s program designed to support SpaceX’s regular crewed flights to low Earth orbit.
Kiviryan was born into a family of Armenian descent. He graduated from the Suvorov Military School in St. Petersburg and in 2015 earned a degree in rocket engineering from the Baltic State Technical University. In 2021, he passed the selection process for the cosmonaut corps at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Research and Test Center.
Meanwhile, preparations continue for the launch of the Crew-13 mission. After an oxidizer leak was detected in the Dragon spacecraft’s propulsion system, its launch was postponed until early October.
Crew-13 will be commanded by NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins, with NASA astronaut Luke Delaney serving as pilot. The crew will also include Joshua Kutryk, a specialist from the Canadian Space Agency, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov.
Kiviryan’s upcoming flight marks the next stage of his professional career, with his selection for an internationally composed mission standing out as a significant aspect. Astronauts from different countries will work together aboard the ISS. The mission plan includes not only time aboard the station but also scientific experiments and testing of new technologies, giving the flight a clear operational purpose.
At the same time, the situation surrounding the Crew-13 launch shows that technical problems during such missions can alter the planned schedule. Following the leak detected in Dragon’s propulsion system, the launch was postponed, while the Crew-14 crew has already been selected, with Kiviryan’s first spaceflight scheduled for spring 2027.
