Musk's SpaceX to launch first Russian cosmonaut to space on Sept 29
SpaceX will launch the Crew-5 mission with three astronauts and a cosmonaut to the Space Station on September 29.
A week after Moscow announced plans to walk out of the International Space Station (ISS), Elon Musk-led SpaceX is ready to launch a Russian cosmonaut to the flying laboratory. The company announced the next crewed mission to the Space Station will launch on September 29 from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The mission will carry Commander Nicole Mann and Pilot Josh Cassada, along with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency(JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina, who will serve as mission specialists. While this is the first spaceflight for Mann, Cassada, and Kikina, it's the fifth trip for Wakata.
This will be the first time that a Russian cosmonaut will board Musk's SpaceX Dragon spacecraft onboard a Falcon-9 rocket. The development comes amid continuous tension between the US and Russia since the war in Ukraine began earlier this year. The two countries have suspended relations and Washington has imposed harsh sanctions to break down Moscow's military and space programs.
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Meanwhile, Musk has also been known to engage in a verbal war with former Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin, who had taunted Nasa by saying, "The US should use a trampoline to get into space," after it stopped its shuttle service to space and was dependent on Russian Soyuz to launch astronauts to space. Musk, after his Falcon-9 succeeded in launching a crew mission, jokingly said the trampoline works.
After the Crew-5 mission reaches the flying laboratory, they will be given the handover by the Crew-4 mission astronauts, who will return home in October.
MEET THE CREW-5 ASTRONAUTS
NICOLE MANN: A colonel in the Marine Corps, she was selected to join Nasa in 2013. Mann has served as a test pilot in the F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet. She deployed twice aboard aircraft carriers in support of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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JOSH CASSADA: A US Navy Pilot and Physicist, Josh Cassada has accumulated more than 4,000 flight hours in over 45 different aircraft. After completing his research at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and defending his dissertation, Cassada was awarded his Ph.D. from the University of Rochester in 2000.
WAKATA KOICHI: A Japanese astronaut, Wakata Koichi is a space veteran and has been beyond Earth four times. In 1996, he flew as the first Japanese Space Shuttle Mission Specialist on STS-72. he was the first Japanese astronaut to complete a long-term stay on the ISS as a crew member of ISS Expeditions 18, 19, and 20.
ANNA KIKINA: An athlete, Kakina has a Master's of sports in polyathlon (all-around) and rafting and is an airborne instructor with 153 parachute jumps. She has been a test cosmonaut with the Russian space agency since 2014 and has been part of research that simulates life on the Moon.
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