SpaceX capsule docks with ISS
October 7, 2022
A SpaceX capsule carrying a Russian cosmonaut and the first Native American woman in space docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday.
The Crew Dragon spacecraft named "Endurance" met with the orbiting research station 30 hours after launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
Anna Kikina, the first Russian aboard an American spacecraft in 20 years, was accompanied by Native American commander Nicole Mann, Josh Cassada of the United States and Koichi Wakata of Japan, the only one among the four with prior space flight experience.
Mann is a member of the Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes in California.
The laughing new arrivals could be seen floating headfirst down the cushioned corridor into the station on a live NASA feed.
"Crew-5 is happy to have finally arrived at the International Space Station," radioed commander Mann moments after the linkup was completed. "We are looking forward to getting to work."
The docking took place 260 miles (420 kilometres) above the Atlantic just off the west coast of Africa.
Russia-US cooperation in space
Russian cosmonaut Kikina's presence is significant because it stems from an agreement signed in July between NASA and Roscosmos. Moscow and Washington agreed to cooperate in space despite tensions brought on by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
NASA astronaut Frank Rubio hitched a ride with two Russian cosmonauts to the ISS two weeks ago aboard a Soyuz capsule from the Russian spaceport Baikonur in Kazakhstan.
One of the few remaining areas of collaboration between the US and Russia is the management of the ISS.
In a post-launch briefing, Sergei Krikalev, head of the human space program at Roscosmos, called the mission "new phase of our cooperation."
This is a far cry from the stance of the last head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, who earlier this year threatened to withdraw cooperation and let the ISS crash over US or European territory.
What is the team's mission?
Since 2000, the ISS has been continually inhabited by a collaboration led by the United States and Russia that also comprises 11 European nations, Canada, and Japan.
The new arrivals, overlapping with the Expedition 68 crew, will bring the number of resident on the ISS to 11 "for a short period."
Jessica Watkins, the first African-American woman to serve on a lengthy mission aboard the ISS, was one of the welcoming crew members.
Over 200 experiments will be carried out by the newcomers throughout their 150-day mission, many of them are geared toward medical research.
These experiments range from the 3-D "bio-printing" of human tissue to a study of bacteria cultivated in microgravity.
ss/wmr (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)