Rochester, You Have Another Astronaut

Josh Cassada ’00 (PhD) will be aboard the International Space Station for several months

Josh Cassada ’00 (PhD) (second from left) and SpaceX astronauts Anna Kikina, Nicole Mann, and Koichi Wakata suited up to test equipment at SpaceX headquarters in California in the days leading up to their October mission to the International Space Station.

Josh Cassada ’00 (PhD) will be aboard the International Space Station for several months as part of a four-member crew that docked with the station this fall.

Cassada served as the pilot for a NASA SpaceX commercial crew that lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on October 5. The spacecraft—named Endurance—docked with the space station the following day, joining a team of seven already on board.

Cassada and his crew mates—Commander Nicole Mann and Mission Specialists Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Anna Kikina of Roscosmos—are scheduled to be aboard the space station for up to six months before returning to Earth in the spring of 2023.

The mission is the first for Cassada, Kikina, and Mann, who is also the first Indigenous woman from NASA to go to space. The crew will conduct scientific studies to prepare for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and to benefit life on Earth, according to NASA.

Cassada is the third Rochester graduate to travel to outer space. In 1998, physiologist Jim Pawelczyk ’82 completed a 16-day mission on the Space Shuttle Columbia, serving as a payload specialist responsible for the operation of a laboratory aboard the shuttle. Pawelczyk is a professor of physiology and kinesiology at Penn State University.

And in 1973, Ed Gibson ’59 was part of a team that set a then world record for time in space when they were aboard the former Skylab 3 for 84 days. During the mission, Gibson participated in three space walks. Gibson’s record was later eclipsed by American scientist and astronaut Norman Thagard, who spent 115 days on the Russian space station Mir.