Kayla Barron heads for the International Space Station this month.
Gates Cambridge Alumna Kayla Barron is among four astronauts who will lift off in the next few days as they head towards the International Space Station for a six-month science mission.
The four astronauts will blast off on the SpaceX Crew Dragon and will dock to the space station.
This is the third crew rotation mission with astronauts on the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and the fourth flight with astronauts as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.
The other astronauts are Raja Chari and Tom Marshburn from NASA, like Kayla, and Matthias Maurer from the European Space Agency.
Three of the four, including Kayla, are first-time flyers. On the space flight, Kayla will be a mission specialist and will work closely with the commander and the pilot to monitor the spacecraft during the dynamic launch and re-entry phases. Once aboard the space station she will act as a flight engineer for Expedition 66 for her first trip to space.
Barron [2011] has an MPhil in nuclear engineering from the University of Cambridge where she was a Gates Cambridge Scholar and went on to serve in the US Navy, having done her undergraduate degree at the US Naval Academy. At the time of her selection as an astronaut candidate in 2017, she was serving as the flag aide to the superintendent of the US Naval Academy.
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