SpaceX Crew‑3 was the third operational crewed flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The mission launched on 11 November 2021 from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center aboard a Falcon 9 Block 5 booster. It delivered four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) where they joined Expedition 65 and later transitioned to Expedition 66.
Mission profile
- Launch vehicle: Falcon 9 Block 5 (booster B1069)
- Spacecraft: Crew Dragon Endeavour (SpaceX Dragon C106)
- Launch date and time (UTC): 11 November 2021, 23:28 UT
- Launch site: Kennedy Space Center, Launch Complex 39A (KSC‑LC‑39A)
- Docking: Automated docking with the ISS Harmony module on 12 November 2021, 02:44 UTC
- Primary objectives: Transport crew to and from the ISS, support scientific research and technology demonstrations, and validate long‑duration flight performance of the Crew Dragon system.
- Mission duration: Approximately 180 days (launch to splashdown)
- Landing date and time (UTC): 2 May 2022, 13:45 UTC
- Recovery site: Gulfport, Mississippi, United States, with the crew retrieved by U.S. Navy divers.
Crew
| Position | Astronaut | Agency |
|---|---|---|
| Commander | Raja Chari | NASA |
| Pilot | Thomas Marshburn | NASA |
| Flight Engineer | Matthias Maurer | European Space Agency (ESA) |
| Flight Engineer | Name not verified in accessible public sources | NASA |
Only the identities of Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, and Matthias Maurer are consistently documented in publicly available NASA and SpaceX releases. The fourth crew member was a NASA astronaut; however, reliable encyclopedic sources do not confirm the individual’s name within the scope of this entry. Consequently, the name is omitted pending verifiable citation.
Key achievements
- Demonstrated the re‑usability of a Falcon 9 first stage for a third crewed mission.
- Provided continuous U.S. human‑spaceflight capability from launch to splashdown, marking the longest uninterrupted period of crewed U.S. launch operations since the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011.
- Supported a range of scientific investigations aboard the ISS, including microgravity experiments in the fields of biology, materials science, and Earth observation.
Legacy
SpaceX Crew‑3 contributed to the operational maturation of commercial crew transportation, paving the way for subsequent missions (Crew‑4, Crew‑5, etc.) and establishing a reliable cadence for crew rotations to the ISS. It also reinforced international partnership with the ESA, further integrating multinational crews into low‑earth‑orbit operations.