SpaceX launched Anna Kikina, its first Russian cosmonaut, to the ISS [VIDEO]

(Screenshot / YouTube / SpaceX)

SpaceX launched the Crew Dragon to the ISS with four crew members: three NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut.

The representative from Roscosmos is Anna Kikina, the fifth woman in the history of Russian and Soviet space flights.

This is the second mission in the resumed cross-flight program between the space agencies of Russia and the US.

The first flight took place two weeks ago when the Soyuz went into orbit with an American astronaut on board.

Russia and the US have long had mixed spaceflights: Russian cosmonauts were included in the crew of some shuttles, and American astronauts flew on the Soyuz spacecraft.

After the shuttle flights ceased in 2011, NASA continued using the Soyuz to maintain access to the ISS, but not as an exchange, but by buying sits.

In the 2010s, NASA actively funded the development of an American spacecraft made by private companies.

Then, in 2020 the space agency got a long-awaited result when Crew Dragon sent two astronauts to the ISS.

Since then, there has been only one flight of a nasa astronaut on a Russian ship, for a place in which the agency paid money.

And in July 2022, NASA and Roscosmos announced the resumption of the cross-flight program: now the agencies will once again exchange seats in their ships.

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MIXED FLIGHTS
The first cross-flight took place on September 21, when Francisco Rubio set off on a Soyuz with two Russians.

Then, yesterday October 5, the reciprocal flight of Crew Dragon took place named Crew-5 mission.

The crew included:

• The mission commander, Nicole Mann, the first Native American woman in space.
• Josh Cassada from NASA
• Koichi Wakata from JAXA
• Anna Kikina from Roscosmos

Kikina became the first representative of Russia on the Crew Dragon spacecraft, as well as the fifth female cosmonaut in the history of Soviet-Russian cosmonautics.

The Falcon 9 rocket with Crew Dragon launched from the Cape Canaveral spaceport at 11:00 local time. Docking with the ISS will take place in approximately 29 hours.

Then, the ship is expected to return to Earth in February 2023.

Source:

• Space.com: https://www.space.com/crew-5-anna-kikina-first-russian-on-spacex-mission
• Ciencia.nasa.gov: https://ciencia.nasa.gov/ciencia-en-la-estacion-crew-5-comienza-su-mision

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