UNITED STATES: As part of an ongoing contract with NASA for astronaut transportation, SpaceX successfully flew another group of astronauts to the International Space Station on Wednesday.
At noon, the Crew-5 mission under the Commercial Crew Program with NASA launched from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39A.
The four-person crew, which consists of American astronaut Nicole Mann (Mission Commander), Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina (Mission Specialist), JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata (Mission Specialist), and Josh Cassada (Mission Pilot), is making its way to the station in a Crew Dragon called “Endurance.”
Soon after launch, it disengaged from the Falcon 9 rocket and is anticipated to reach the station on Thursday.
The group will stay in space for up to six months. With more than 11 months in space under his belt, Wakata is the only crew member with previous spaceflight experience.
30 people have now been sent into space by SpaceX. The mission is noteworthy for a few additional reasons as well.
Additionally, it is the first time since 2002 that a cosmonaut has flown on an American spacecraft and the first time a cosmonaut has flown on a SpaceX Crew Dragon.
A recent agreement between the United States and Russia for the transportation of astronauts includes cosmonaut Kikina’s seat aboard the spacecraft.
As part of the agreement, American astronaut Francisco Rubio travelled to the ISS last month on a Russian Soyuz.
Sergei Krikalev, head of human spaceflight at Roscosmos, stated in a post-launch briefing that the Crew-5 mission marked “a new phase of our cooperation” between the United States and Russia, part of a partnership that started “more than 40 years ago.”
In less than three years, Crew-5 marks SpaceX’s eighth human spaceflight mission.
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