Tag: Anna Kikina

Crew-5 Team Splashes Down Off the Florida Coast

CNN reported that the four astronauts “who make up the Crew-5 team aboard the International Space Station returned home from a five-month stay in space Saturday, splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico.” The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule “disembarked from the space station at 2:20 am ET, beginning the final leg of the astronauts’ journey.” The spacecraft “then maneuvered back toward Earth before plunging back into the atmosphere for a landing off the coast of Tampa, Florida[,] just after 9 p.m. ET Saturday.” The capsule was hauled out of the ocean by rescue ships and the astronauts then got to breath fresh air for the first time in five months. The four crew members – NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, astronaut Koichi Wakata of JAXA, and cosmonaut Anna Kikina of the Russian space agency Roscosmos – “launched to the space station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule this past October.”
Full Story (CNN)

 

 Video

Dragon and Crew-5 NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, along with JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina splash down off the Florida coast at 9:02 p.m. ET on Saturday, March 11, after 157 days in space.
(SpaceX; YouTube)

NASA, SpaceX Successfully Launch Crew-5 Mission to the ISS

Space.com reports that NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission successfully launched to the International Space Station Wednesday from Kennedy Space Center’s historic Launch Pad 39A.  Liftoff occurred at 12:00 p.m. EDT, “kicking off a roughly 29-hour journey to the orbiting lab.” The spacecraft is scheduled to dock at the ISS on Thursday at 4:57 p.m. ET.  The mission’s “four spaceflyers are NASA’s Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and cosmonaut Anna Kikina.” The launch “made Mann the first Native American woman to reach the final frontier and Kikina the first Russian to fly on a private American spacecraft.”
Full Story (Space.com)

 

 Video

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 Mission to the International Space Station (Official NASA Broadcast)
(NASA; YouTube)

Crew-5 Mission Will See Russian Cosmonaut Fly Aboard US Spacecraft for First Time Since 2002

CBS News reports, “Despite frigid U.S.-Russian relations, cosmonaut Anna Kikina is poised to become the first Russian to launch on an American rocket in nearly two decades and the first to fly aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon ferry ship for a flight to the International Space Station.” On her involvement in the mission, Kikina said, “My leaders just [appointed] me and told me, do you want to be part of Crew 5? Yes! Why not? But I was so surprised.” CBS reports, “Kikina originally expected to fly aboard a Soyuz. But she was assigned to Crew 5 after NASA and Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, agreed on a new seat-swap plan intended to ensure at least one U.S. astronaut and one Russian cosmonaut are on board the station at all times.”
Full Story (CBS News)