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SpaceX launches Crew-5 mission with cosmonaut as part of NASA-Roscosmos exchange program as US-Russia ties dampen

A SpaceX spaceship blasted off from Florida on Wednesday. The spaceship was carrying a Russian cosmonaut to the International Space Station (ISS). Anna Kikina, the 38-year-old Russian, is an an engineer by training. The Crew-5 mission also includes one Japanese and two American astronauts.

TN Science Desk

Updated Oct 6, 2022, 07:07 IST

(From left) Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina, NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Nicole A. Mann, JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata. (Photo: Twitter/@SpaceX/Screengrab)

A SpaceX spaceship that blasted off from Florida on Wednesday carried a Russian cosmonaut to the International Space Station (ISS). The Crew-5 mission also includes one Japanese and two American astronauts.

The 38-year-old Russian, Anna Kikina, is an engineer by training. She will become the fifth female professional cosmonaut to go into space. The Crew-5 mission is being led by Nicole Mann. Apart from Kakina and Mann, other crew members of the mission are - NASA astronaut Josh Cassada and JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata.

Notably, the Kakina has become part of the mission amid soaring tensions between the US and Russia in the wake of the Ukraine war. Notably, two weeks ago, an American astronaut took off on a Russian Soyuz rocket for the orbital platform.

The rocket was lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at noon. "When you each are flying other's crew members, you know that you have a huge responsibility that you're promising to the other country," NASA associate administrator Kathy Lueders said as quoted by AFP.

Also Read: NASA slams Russian cosmonauts for anti-Ukraine propaganda in space.

At present, Kakina is the only women cosmonaut in service. Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman cosmonaut who was sent to space by the Soviet Union in 1963. Meanwhile, the first American woman Sally Ride went to space in 1983.

Notably, the ISS is one of the few remaining areas of cooperation between Washington and Moscow. It is also the first time that the Elon Musk-led company has carried a cosmonaut into space on its vehicle. The mission is part of the long-planned astronaut exchange program between NASA and Roscosmos.

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