Roscosmos cosmonaut of Armenian descent Harutyun Kiviryan will travel to the International Space Station no earlier than spring 2027 as part of NASA and SpaceX's Crew-14 mission. The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reported this.
This will be Kiviryan's first flight to the International Space Station. He will be joined by three other astronauts from two different space agencies as part of a long-duration scientific mission.
"NASA astronauts Kayla Barron and Chris Birch will serve as spacecraft commander and pilot, respectively. They will be joined by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Makoto Suwa and Roscosmos cosmonaut Harutyun Kiviryan as mission specialists. Upon reaching the International Space Station, the Crew-14 team will join the crews of Expeditions 75 and 76," NASA reported.
This mission will be the 14th rotation of commercial crew conducted jointly with SpaceX under NASA's low Earth orbit program. The crew will conduct scientific research and test technologies that will help prepare for future exploration missions to the Moon and Mars.
For Kayla Barron, this will be her second mission to the International Space Station. She has been a NASA astronaut since 2017. Barron earned a bachelor's degree in systems engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and then a master's degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Cambridge in England. She holds the rank of commander in the U.S. Navy, is a qualified submarine officer, and has served three times on the USS Maine submarine. She first traveled to the space station in 2021 as a member of the Crew-3 mission and has spent a total of 177 days in space, participating in Expeditions 66 and 67. Barron has performed two spacewalks and also served as lead operator for robotic systems during another spacewalk. Most recently, she has worked on developing new technologies and operational concepts for NASA's Artemis program.
When discussing this mission, what stands out most is not the launch date but the crew composition. Four astronauts from three different agencies, with this being Kiviryan's first career flight and also Suwa's first. Barron and Birch are experienced, but Crew-14 is essentially a mission of a new generation of astronauts.
Notably, the flight is scheduled for no earlier than spring 2027. This means that preparatory work will still take a long time, and the date could change. The agencies have not yet clarified whether that timeframe depends on technical readiness or other factors.
Kiviryan's journey is also significant symbolically: a cosmonaut of Armenian descent will represent Roscosmos in an international team that also includes NASA and JAXA. What research he will personally conduct is not yet known.
