Merritt Island, Florida. (Kennedy Space Center) – The fifth mission of the commercial crew program, Crew 5or Crew 5, successfully took off from the Kennedy Space Center.
a brand new Flacon 9 rocket of the company SpaceX was responsible for carrying the capsule into orbit Dragon Endeavoralso from SpaceX, with four astronauts on board, including two Americans, a Japanese, and a Russian cosmonaut.
The crew, composed of the commander nicole mannthe first of Native American origin to fly in space, the American Josh Cassadapilot, japanese Koichi Wakataa veteran of four space missions, and cosmonaut anna kikina, who becomes the first Russian cosmonaut to fly from the United States in 20 years. Kikina is also the only active female cosmonaut and becomes the first Russian cosmonaut to fly in a commercial spacecraft.
Amid geopolitical tensions between the USA and Russiaaccentuated of course by the invasion of Ukraine, cooperation in space continues to be a source of hope and peace between the two nations, which are still negotiating and trying to come to a successful conclusion in order to continue with the activity of the Spacial station until the year 2030.
Crew 5 will be the first mission into space for everyone except Japan’s Wakata, who has already flown not only on Soyuz ships, but also on the Space Taxi (Space Shuttle) on missions STS-119 and STS-127. In this way, she also joins the select group of astronauts who have flown in three different spacecraft.
The four members of the Crew 5 mission will join the 68th crew of the Space Station, and will spend 6 months in orbit performing all kinds of scientific experiments, maintenance tasks and spacewalks.
Liftoff was accomplished with the help of unbeatable weather conditions, something really hard to come by in Florida, where weather is usually the main factor canceling launches for much of the year.
During the press conference after the launch, senior NASA officials such as Kathy Leaders, Steve Stich and John Montalvano agreed that “it was really a pleasure to have to focus only on the rocket and the launch instead of the weather conditions.”
The capsule Dragon Endeavor will dock tomorrow at 4:57pm ET using their automated systems. It is the second time that Endeavor has traveled to space.
This same capsule was responsible for transporting the crew of the Crew 3 mission and has undergone several maintenance tasks, changing components, such as its heat shield, which is brand new, as well as its parachutes. SpaceX recycles and maintains many other components so that its capsules can also make new flights.
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The crew of the Crew 5 mission is expected to return to Earth in the spring of 2023.
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