HIGHLIGHTS

Crew-6 is scheduled to launch in 2023.

The mission will be launched by SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.

NASA's Kennedy Space Center will launch the Crew-6 mission.

WHY IN NEWS

NASA has selected two astronauts for its sixth full-fledged crew mission to the International Space Station, which will be launched by SpaceX aboard its Dragon spacecraft (ISS). Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg have secured the necessary approvals for the mission, which is set to fly on a Falcon 9 rocket in 2023. Bowen will serve as the spacecraft's commander, while Hoburg will serve as its pilot. International partners will assign two more astronauts to the position of mission experts at a later date, the agency added.

The four crew members will join an expedition crew aboard the International Space Station in Low Earth Orbit when the mission launches from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The floating space laboratory will serve as a critical test bed for resolving long-duration spaceflight challenges and developing economic potential in LEO. This will be Bowen's fourth voyage to space, after spending more than 40 days in orbit on seven spacewalks. Crew-6 will be the first crew to visit the International Space Station for an extended period of time. Bowen was born in the town of Cohasset, Massachusetts, in the United States. He graduated from the US Naval Academy with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. In July 2000, Bowen became the first submarine officer to be selected as an astronaut by NASA.

This will be Hoburg's first voyage to space after being selected as an astronaut by NASA in 2017. Hoburg was an assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT when he was chosen as an astronaut. According to NASA, he is also a commercial pilot with instrument, single-engine, and multi-engine ratings. He is part of NASA's 'Artemis team,' a group of 18 astronauts from which the agency will select the crew for the Artemis 3 mission, which will return humans to the moon.

Japan plans to launch a Mars probe in 2024 and send an astronaut to the moon by the late 2020

On Tuesday, Japan revised its space exploration plans, aiming to land a Japanese person on the moon by the second half of the 2020s. 'Not only is space a frontier that inspires people's aspirations and desires, but it also serves as a critical basis for our economic society in terms of economic stability,' Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said during a meeting to finalise the plan. According to the plan's draught timeline, Japan plans to send the first non-American to the moon as part of the Artemis mission, a US-led effort to return men to the moon. The plan also outlines Japan's ambitions to send a mission to Mars in 2024 and to develop ways to generate solar power in space.Neighbouring China also wants to be a significant space power by 2030, and it aspires to send people to the moon, creating the possibility of an Asian space race. China became the second country to deploy a rover on Mars in May, two years after the first spacecraft landed on the moon's far side.  Japan's space exploration goals were announced just a week after Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa returned to Earth after spending 12 days onboard the International Space Station, making him the first space tourist to visit the ISS in almost a decade.