The Crew-4 Dragon mission, for example, carried NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins, the first Black woman ever to join the ISS crew. With the return of astronaut launches from US soil, SpaceX has offered a stage for several historic firsts. The space agency collaborated with SpaceX for years to transition the task of shuttling people to and from the space station after NASA retired its Space Shuttle Program in 2011. Launching NASA astronauts to the space station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft is nothing new. The spacecraft is aiming to dock with the space station on Thursday around 5 p.m. The Crew Dragon spacecraft is now on a slow, precise trek to the ISS, which orbits about 200 miles (322 kilometers) above the Earth’s surface. Her participation in the flight is the latest clear signal that, despite mounting tensions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the decades-long US-Russia partnership in space will persist - at least for now. What’s more, Kikina is the first Russian to join a SpaceX mission as part of a ride-sharing deal NASA and Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, inked in July. She’s also serving as mission commander, making her the first woman ever to take on such a role for a SpaceX mission. The spaceflight marks a historic moment, as Mann not only became the first Native American woman ever to travel to space. “And do it together.”ĭubbed Crew-5, the mission is the sixth astronaut flight launched as a joint endeavor between NASA and SpaceX, a privately held aerospace company, to the space station. We can all keep that in mind … and continue to do amazing things,” Cassada said, and Kikina could be seen pumping her fist as he spoke. Sometimes we experience it in a very different way from our neighbors. “We live in the same world, we live in the same universe. The toy was left to float around the cabin, signaling that the crew had entered weightlessness.Įinstein, who first conceptualized the Theory of Relativity, had the “happiest thought of his entire life” when he realized that a “person in freefall can feel their own weight,” Cassada explained in a dispatch from the Crew Dragon spacecraft. ET from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.Īfter reaching orbit, NASA shared footage of the crew aboard their capsule, sharing their excitement as they explained that they brought along a “freefall indicator” - a small, stuffed doll in the likeness of Albert Einstein. The four crew members - astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada of NASA, astronaut Koichi Wakata of JAXA, or Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and cosmonaut Anna Kikina of Roscosmos - took off aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft at 12 p.m. The mission, which includes some historic firsts, moved forward even as rising geopolitical tensions brew on the ground. The James Webb Space Telescope captured a highly detailed snapshot of the so-called Pillars of Creation, a vista of three looming towers made of interstellar dust and gas that’s speckled with newly formed stars.
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