CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. –
A Russian cosmonaut who caught a U.S. raise to the International Space Station arrived at her new dwelling Thursday for a five-month keep, accompanied by a Japanese astronaut and two from NASA, together with the primary Native American girl in house.
The SpaceX capsule pulled up to the station a day after launching into orbit. The linkup occurred 260 miles (420 kilometers) above the Atlantic, simply off the west coast of Africa.
It was the primary time in 20 years {that a} Russian hitched a trip from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, the results of a brand new settlement reached regardless of friction over the conflict in Ukraine.
Cosmonaut Anna Kikina joins two Russians already on the orbiting outpost. She’ll reside and work on the Russian facet till March, earlier than returning to Earth in the identical SpaceX capsule.
Riding together with Kikina: Marine Col. Nicole Mann, a member of the Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes in California, Navy Capt. Josh Cassada and Japan’s Koichi Wakata, the one skilled house flier of the bunch with 5 missions.
As the capsule closed in, the house station residents promised the brand new arrivals that their bunks have been prepared and the skin mild was on.
“You guys are the very best,” replied Mann, the capsule’s commander.
Mann and her crew will change three Americans and one Italian who will return in their very own SpaceX capsule subsequent week after nearly half a 12 months up there. Until then, 11 individuals will share the orbiting lab.
NASA astronaut Frank Rubio arrived two weeks in the past. He launched on a Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan, kicking off the cash-free crew swapping between NASA and the Russian Space Agency. They agreed to the plan final summer season so as to all the time have an American and Russian on the station.
Until Elon Musk’s SpaceX began launching astronauts two years in the past, NASA was pressured to spend tens of tens of millions of {dollars} each time an astronaut flew up on a Soyuz.
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