An Atlas-V rocket, built at the United Launch Alliance factory in Decatur, is on the launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Florida’s Atlantic coast. Its job is to carry two astronauts aboard the new Boeing Starliner spacecraft to orbit. A successful mission will add astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry "Butch" Wilmore to an elite group of people to have flown on three types of space vehicles.
APR looked into the issue, and found less than ten names.
Williams and Wilmore have both flown to orbit on NASA’s space shuttle, and on Russian Soyuz capsules. Their planned flight on the Boeing Starliner, powered by its Alabama built Atlas-V rocket, would be the third kind of vehicle for each crew member.
Even for veteran astronauts, that appears rare.
The “Mercury Seven” pioneer Wally Schirra was the first person to fly three types of spacecraft. His rookie flight was on the “Sigma 7” Mercury capsule, which occurred in 1962. Then, on Schirra's two-member Gemini craft in 1965, and finally the first mission of the three person Apollo ship in 1968.
Next, was astronaut John Young. He flew the maiden flight of Gemini in 1965. Then, he flew to the Moon on Apollo 10 as the "dress rehearsal" of the historic 1969 lunar landing of Apollo 11. Finally, he commanded the first launch of space shuttle Columbia in 1981, for his third flight on a different vehicle each time.
Schirra and Young held that “three spacecraft” record for forty years. That is, until along came astronaut Shane Kimbrough. He joined the “three spacecraft” club when he flew aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule in 2021. Kimbrough had previously gone to orbit on the shuttle and a Russian Soyuz ship. That made this astronaut “three for three.”
Since then, NASA astronauts Peggy Whitson and Michael Barratt have flown three vehicles, as have Japanese space veterans Koichi Wakata and Soichi Noguchi. They all used a combination of shuttle flights, trips on the Russian Soyuz, and the SpaceX Crew Dragon.
APR News joined CBS-News in New York City for “live” coverage of the launch of a SpaceX Crew Dragon back in February. Astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria was aboard that blastoff, and another member of the “three spacecraft club” after flying on shuttle and Soyuz. If next month’s Atlas-V rocket launch, and the Boeing Starliner flight are successful, a follow-up flight is tentatively planned with veteran astronaut Mike Fincke. If that launch proceeds, it would be his “third” spacecraft mission, after flying on the space shuttle and Soyuz.
