The InternationalSpaceStation has welcomed four new astronauts, with one of them becoming the first Native American woman to reach orbit.
Traveling inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft that launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, SpaceX’s Crew-5 astronauts — Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada of NASA, Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency , and Anna Kikina of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency — docked with the ISS shortly before 5 p.m. ET.
Crew-5 Mission | Approach and Docking This is the first space voyage for Mann, Cassada, and Kikina, while Wakata is now on his fifth orbital mission — a record for a Japanese astronaut. A couple of hours after linking up with the station 250 miles above Earth, the four crewmembers entered the orbital outpost where they were greeted by the current inhabitants. First through the hatch was a beaming Nicole Mann, who has become the first Native American woman to go to space.The crew, including NASA's @AstroDuke, commander, and @Astro_Josh, pilot, will spend several months aboard the orbiting laboratory, conducting more than 200 experiments.
In a week from now, there’ll be even more space available when SpaceX’s Crew-4 astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, Jessica Watkins, and Samantha Cristoforetti return to Earth after a six-month stay. Remaining on board will be NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, who arrived together in September 2022. Station Commander @AstroSamantha welcomes the four @SpaceX #Crew5 members aboard the station as they join the Exp 68 crew for several months of @ISS_Research. pic.twitter.