 |
| Photo Credit: AP. |
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A Russian cosmonaut who caught a U.S. lift to the International Space Station arrived at her new home Thursday for a five-month stay, accompanied by a Japanese astronaut and two from NASA, including the first Native American woman in space.
The SpaceX
capsule pulled up to the station a day after launching into orbit. The linkup
occurred 260 miles (420 kilometers) above the Atlantic, just off the west coast
of Africa.
It was the
first time in 20 years that a Russian hitched a ride from NASA’s Kennedy Space
Center, the result of a new agreement reached despite friction over the war in
Ukraine.
Cosmonaut
Anna Kikina joins two Russians already at the orbiting outpost. She’ll live and
work on the Russian side until March, before returning to Earth in the same
SpaceX capsule.
Riding along
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 only experienced space flier of the bunch with five missions.
As the
capsule closed in, the space station residents promised the new arrivals that
their bunks were ready and the outside light was on.
“You guys
are the best,” replied Mann, the capsule’s commander.
Mann and her
crew will replace three Americans and one Italian who will return in their own
SpaceX capsule next week after almost half a year up there. Until then, 11 people
will share the orbiting lab.
NASA
astronaut Frank Rubio arrived two weeks ago. 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 last summer in order to always
have an American and Russian at the station.
Until Elon
Musk’s SpaceX started launching astronauts two years ago, NASA was forced to
spend tens of millions of dollars every time an astronaut flew up on a Soyuz.
The
Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard
Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely
responsible for all content.