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A multinational crew of astronauts linked up with the International Space Station on Thursday after a 29-hour trek, a SpaceX capsule carrying a multinational crew of astronauts.
The mission, called Crew - 5, is a joint operation by NASA, SpaceX and their partners around the world, including Russia, for the first time, despite mounting tensions on the ground surrounding the invasion of Ukraine. The mission was launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12 p.m. On Wednesday, the deadline was set to be set for the ET.
A crew dragon capsule made a slow, methodical climb toward the space station. As it approached the ISS, the spacecraft, fully autonomous, used its small onboard thrusters to stay oriented as it eased into its docking port. After ensuring a vacuum-tight seal between the SpaceX spacecraft and the ISS, a hatch that separated the capsule and the space station was opened, officially joining the spacecraft. The four crew members will join the seven astronauts already aboard the ISS, according to the four crew members. The crew includes astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada of NASA, astronaut Koichi Wakata of JAXA or Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and cosmonaut Anna Kikina of Russia's Roscosmos space agency.
Mann is the first Native American woman to ever travel to space, and the spaceflight marks the beginning of a historic moment. She is also serving as mission commander, making her the first woman to ever take on such a role on a SpaceX mission.
The participation of Kikina in this flight is part of a ride-sharing agreement signed by NASA and Roscosmos in July. NASA has repeatedly said that it is vital to continuing the space station operations and the valuable scientific research carried out on board, despite the tensions between the United States and Russia reaching a near fever pitch as the war in Ukraine escalates, despite geopolitical tensions between the United States and Russia.
Sergei Krikalev, the executive director of Human Space Flight Programs at Roscosmos, spoke about the significance of the US-Russian partnership during a news conference on Wednesday.
In 1975, when the Apollo-Soyuz crew worked together, Krikalev said, referring to an in-space meetup in 1975 that became a symbol of post-Cold War cooperation between the US and Russia. The crew of 5 astronauts will spend about five months in space. They are expected to conduct spacewalks to maintain the space station's exterior, as well as perform more than 200 science experiments during their stay.
Experiments include studies on printing human organs in space, understanding fuel systems operating on the Moon, and better understanding heart disease, according to a NASA statement.
This is the sixth crewed mission that SpaceX, a privately owned company headed by controversial tech billionaire Elon Musk, has carried out on NASA's behalf. The program is based on a $2.6 billion deal that NASA and SpaceX signed nearly a decade ago as part of the space agency's efforts to hand over all transportation to and from the ISS to the private sector so that NASA can focus on exploring deeper into the solar system.
Aerospace giant Boeing signed a similar contract, though it is still working on getting its commercial spacecraft, the Starliner, up and running. NASA has continued to expand its partnership with SpaceX, increasing the value of their overall deal to include 15 total crewed missions with a value of more than $4.9 billion.