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SpaceX Launches Its First Russian Astronaut: Watch Live SpaceX Launches to Space Station With Russian Astronaut Among Crew of 4
(32 minutes later)
A SpaceX rocket carrying four astronauts to the International Space Station launched on Wednesday.A SpaceX rocket carrying four astronauts to the International Space Station launched on Wednesday.
One of the passengers is a Russian astronaut, Anna Kikina. Her presence on the mission shows that cooperation is continuing between the United States and Russia on the International Space Station in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The rocket lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida just after noon on Wednesday. It is to arrive at the space station shortly before 5 p.m. on Thursday.
The rocket lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at noon. It is to arrive at the space station just before 5 p.m. on Thursday. One of the passengers of the mission, Crew-5, is a Russian astronaut, Anna Kikina. Her presence on the spacecraft shows that cooperation is continuing between the United States and Russia on the International Space Station in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Only two of the four astronauts on this flight work for NASA: Nicole Mann, the mission commander, and Josh Cassada, the pilot. The other two are Koichi Wakata, of Japan, and Ms. Kikina. The other crew members on Wednesday’s flight are Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada of NASA and Koichi Wakata of JAXA, the Japanese space agency. The four will spend half a year in orbit on the space station.
Earlier in the International Space Station program, Russian astronauts regularly flew on the space shuttles, and NASA astronauts flew on Russian Soyuz rockets. After the retirement of the space shuttles in 2011, the Soyuz was the only transportation available for taking astronauts to and from the space station. In July, NASA and Roscosmos, the state corporation that oversees the Russian space industry, completed an agreement to fly Russian astronauts on American rockets and NASA astronauts on Russian Soyuz rockets. As part of the arrangement, Frank Rubio, a NASA astronaut, launched on a Soyuz last month. Ms. Kikina is the first Russian to ride in a SpaceX rocket.
When SpaceX’s Crew Dragon became operational in 2020, NASA no longer needed to fly its astronauts on the Soyuz but still wanted to be able to use it. And the space agency wanted Russian astronauts to get rides in the Crew Dragon (as well as in a second American capsule, Boeing’s Starliner, which may become operational next year). In recent years, even before the war of Ukraine, Russian and American officials contemplated the future of the International Space Station. The outpost in orbit has been continuously occupied since 2000 and is jointly managed by both countries.
That is to help ensure smooth operations of the space station, which is divided into two segments: one led by Russia and one by NASA and its partners. The current agreement to manage the station ends in 2024. During the Trump administration, NASA officials proposed retiring the International Space Station and turning to commercial alternatives. However, no private space stations seemed likely to be launched that quickly, and NASA now says it would like to extend operations on the I.S.S. through 2030.
Russia has said it will build its own space station, but it has also indicated that it will not leave the I.S.S. until that is ready. While Dmitry Rogozin, the former director general of Roscosmos, made bombastic threats that Russia would leave the project, Russia never gave official notice that it would leave before the end of the agreement in 2024.
Russia, like the other countries involved with the space station, is currently talking with NASA about the proposed 2030 extension. Russia has suggested its participation might not continue for so long, but it has also said that it would not leave until its future space station is operational.
While the space station’s future remains far on the horizon, NASA and Russia have had to address getting crews to and from the outpost in orbit in the present. In the early years of the space station, before the loss of the Columbia shuttle in 2003, the two countries traded seats on the American space shuttles and the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. After the retirement of the space shuttles in 2011, NASA purchased seats from Russia for the transportation of its astronauts to and from orbit. That became unnecessary when SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule became operational in 2020.
But NASA wanted to continue trading seats. For the seat exchange program, no money is paid between NASA and Roscosmos. Rather, the arrangement is intended to help ensure smooth operations on the space station, which consists of a Russian-led segment and a NASA-led segment.
“They provide the propulsion,” Bill Nelson, NASA’s administrator, said during NASA Television coverage of the launch. “We, the U.S., provide the electricity. So for the safety of all the crew, as well as the operation of the station, we need both there now, particularly with regard to safety.”
The worry is that some kind of emergency — a serious health issue with a crew member, for example — could lead to an early return to Earth. All of the crew members on the spacecraft would have to return to Earth, too. (Otherwise, there would not be enough seats on the remaining spacecraft.) If all the Russians arrived on the Soyuz, that would leave the Russian segment of the space station with no crew to manage it.
“Flying integrated crews ensures there are appropriately trained crew members on board the station for essential maintenance and spacewalks,” NASA said in a statement in July when Ms. Kikina was announced as a member of the Crew-5 mission.“Flying integrated crews ensures there are appropriately trained crew members on board the station for essential maintenance and spacewalks,” NASA said in a statement in July when Ms. Kikina was announced as a member of the Crew-5 mission.
The worry is that some kind of emergency — a serious health issue with a crew member, for example — could lead to an early return to Earth. All of the crew members on the spacecraft would have to return to Earth too. (Otherwise, there would not be enough seats on the remaining spacecraft.) If all the Russians had arrived on the Russian Soyuz, then that would leave the Russian segment of the space station untended. Despite tensions on Earth since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, operations on the International Space Station have been largely unaffected. But there were strains on the ground. When Mr. Rogozin was still running Roscosmos, he demanded the lifting of economic sanctions against Russian aerospace companies while threatening that Russia would leave the space station. And in July, in a rare burst of disapproval, NASA strongly criticized Roscosmos for distributing photographs of three Russian astronauts on the space station holding the flags of Russian-backed separatists in two provinces of Ukraine.
As part of the crew exchanges, a NASA astronaut, Frank Rubio, launched with two Russian astronauts on a Soyuz rocket to the space station last month. Shortly after that, Mr. Rogozin was replaced, and his successor, Yuri Borisov, has been much more low-key.
“This type of exchange will increase the robustness of our program,” said Sergei Krikalev, executive director for the human spaceflight programs at Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, during a news conference on Monday. “And we will continue this practice to make our program more reliable.” Soon after his appointment, Mr. Borisov suggested that Russia’s involvement in the space station after 2024 was uncertain during a meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in July. But Mr. Borisov and other Russian officials have been more measured about their country’s plans, noting that Russia’s independent orbital station will not be built until later in the decade.
Ms. Kikina, 38, is the only woman currently in the Russian astronaut corps. She had been training for a Soyuz flight but was transferred to the SpaceX mission when the agreement between NASA and Russian space agency was completed. This is her first flight to space. “We do not intend to stop our manned program even for a minute, so our future plans will be connected with the creation of the Russian Orbital Station.” Mr. Borisov said this week at the Russian Academy of Sciences, according to a report from Roscosmos.
The last woman in the Russian astronaut corps to fly to the space station was Elena Serova in 2014. More recently a Russian actress, Yulia Peresild, flew to the space station in 2021 to film scenes for a movie. The swapping of seats continues next year.
Ms. Mann and Mr. Cassada are also first-time fliers to orbit. Mr. Wakata is, by contrast, a space veteran, with four previous missions, including two stays at the International Space Station. Andrey Fedyaev, another Russian astronaut, will be a member of Crew-6, the next SpaceX mission, planned for February.
Ms. Mann, as a member of the Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes in Northern California, will be the first Indigenous woman from NASA to go to orbit.
No, not anytime soon.
Despite tensions between the United States and Russia after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, cooperation on the space station has continued. Dmitry Rogozin, the former head of Roscosmos, made bellicose statements about how Russia would leave the project, but Russia never officially gave notice that it would be leaving.
The current agreement runs through 2024. The United States would like to extend operations through 2030. Russia has said it will build its own space station, but it has also indicated that it would not leave the I.S.S. until that is ready.
“We know that it’s not going to happen very quick,” Mr. Krikalev of Roscosmos said on Monday. “So probably we will keep flying until we will have any new infrastructure that allow us to do continuous human presence on low-Earth orbit.”
He added, “So, up to now, we keep flying together.”
It’ll be a roughly a 29-hour trip to the space station — the duration is dictated by the orbital dynamics needed for the SpaceX capsule to catch up with the space station. The four Crew-5 members are to stay on the space station until March next year.
For a while, 11 people will be on the space station until the Crew-4 astronauts, who arrived at the space station in April, return home later this month.
Crew-6, the next SpaceX mission, is planned to launch in February. There will be another Russian astronaut on that flight, Andrey Fedyaev. There will also be an astronaut from the United Arab Emirates, a seat that was sold to that country by Axiom Space, a company that has been flying private astronauts to the space station. (Axiom received the SpaceX seat from NASA in exchange for a seat on an earlier Soyuz flight that Axiom had purchased but which NASA needed.)
On its second private flight to the space station, scheduled for August next year, Axiom is planning to take John Shoffner, an American racing driver and investor, and two astronauts from Saudi Arabia. Axiom has also signed agreements with Italy, Hungary and Turkey to carry their astronauts to orbit.
The next Soyuz mission, scheduled to launch in the spring, will also have a NASA astronaut aboard, Loral O’Hara.The next Soyuz mission, scheduled to launch in the spring, will also have a NASA astronaut aboard, Loral O’Hara.
Boeing, the other company that NASA hired to take astronauts to and from the space station, could finally get off the ground next year. A demonstration flight of its Starliner capsule carrying two NASA astronauts, Scott Tingle and Mike Fincke, is currently scheduled for February 2023.