Two NASA astronauts, a veteran of the Japanese space programmed, and the sole female cosmonaut of Russia arrived at the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday to get ready for their launch on Wednesday aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spaceship to the International Space Station.
Before daybreak on Saturday, their Falcon 9 rocket was rolled to the top of iconic pad 39A, where it spun vertically shortly after 12 p.m. Eastern. Crew 5 captain Nicole Mann, Josh Cassada, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, and cosmonaut Anna Kikina flew in from Houston and touched down on the spaceport runway to start final preparations.
Wakata added, “First of all, my prayers and thoughts are with all of the Floridians who have been impacted by the catastrophic disaster. “I hope that with this launch, we will slightly brighten everyone’s view of the skies over Florida.”
On Sunday morning, the astronauts will don their pressure suits and board the Crew Dragon spacecraft for a dress rehearsal countdown. The first stage engines of the Falcon 9 will be tested later in the day by SpaceX engineers to ensure they are ready for flight.
If everything goes as planned, Mann and her fellow crew members will actually strap in around 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday to prepare for launch shortly after 12 p.m., when the Earth’s rotation will carry the rocket into the plane of the space station’s orbit.
The crew will arrive to the lab complex after around 29 hours and will move in for an automated docking at the station’s forward port around 5 a.m. Thursday.
Expedition 68 commander Samantha Cristoforetti, her Crew 4 coworkers Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, and Jessica Watkins, as well as the Soyuz MS-22/68S crew of Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitri Petelin, and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, who arrived at the station on September 21, will be waiting to welcome them on board.
While Mann, Cassada, and Kikina—the first Russian cosmonaut to ride aboard a Crew Dragon—are space rookies, Wakata is making his fifth space flight.
As a result of a recent agreement between NASA and Roscosmos, the Russian state space agency, at least one American astronaut and one Russian cosmonaut must always remain on board the space station, Rubio’s accession to the Soyuz crew and Kikina’s addition to Crew 5 were made possible.
Without such a deal, a medical emergency or other issue that would necessitate an early Crew Dragon or Soyuz departure could result in the station being evacuated by an all-Russian or all-NASA-sponsored crew that lacks the technical know-how to operate the other country’s systems. Kikina expressed her excitement over the chance.
She said in shaky English, “I want to share with you my feelings.” “I sincerely want to thank everyone who gave me the unbelievable, incredible opportunity to take part in our shared, life-changing endeavor on behalf of all of us. And to be a member of that fantastic Crew 5, for me and perhaps for you as well. I genuinely adore my crewmates, and I’m at ease.”
Kikina, a member of the Roscommon Cosmonaut Corps since 2012, claimed she was shocked to learn she would be joining Crew 5.
“My leaders have recently appointed me and asked whether I want to join Crew 5. Yes. why not But I was genuinely shocked.”
