SpaceX to launch NASA's Crew-5 mission with Russian cosmonaut onboard on Sept 29

NASA, on Tuesday, announced that the Crew-5 mission carrying four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) will launch on September 29 this year. Crew-5 will be the fifth crew-rotation mission which NASA would carry out using SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. 

The two-stage Falcon 9 will liftoff from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida mounted with the Crew Dragon. The team of Crew-5 includes two NASA astronauts– Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada– the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina. 

While it would be the fifth spaceflight for Wakata, the other three members– Mann, Cassada and Kikina– will launch to space for the first time in their career. What’s more, is the Kikina will be the first Russian to launch into space aboard a private American spacecraft. Currently the only female cosmonaut from Russia, Kikina was selected for the mission under a cross-flight agreement between Roscosmos and NASA. 

This new crew will replace the Crew-4 team, which launched to the space station in late April this year and included three NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, Jessica Watkins and one European astronaut Samantha Christoforetti. According to NASA, Lindgren and his team will make their return to Earth in October aboard the ‘Freedom’ Dragon capsule. 

About the Crew-5 team members

Nicole Mann -- Selected by NASA in 2013, Mann is a colonel in the Marine Corps and has served as a test pilot in the F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet. She was also deployed twice aboard aircraft carriers in support of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Josh Cassada -- Cassada was also selected by NASA in 2013 and he is a physicist and US Navy test pilot. He earned his Physics B.A. at Albion College and his Ph. D. at the University of Rochester, conducting experimental high energy physics research at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Having served as an instructor at the US Naval Test Pilot School, Cassada has accumulated more than 4,000 flight hours in over 45 different aircraft. 

Koichi Wakata -- Set to launch on his fifth space mission, Wakata has previously been part of long-duration ISS missions including Expedition 18, 19 and 20. In 1996, he flew to space under the STS-72 satellite retrieval mission and again on STS-92 mission ISS assembly mission. 

Anna Kikina -- Kikina was selected as a cosmonaut candidate for Roscosmos in 2012 and was added to the Roscosmos cosmonaut corps in 2014. In 2017, as flight engineer No. 1, she took part in the SIRIUS international isolation experiment, which simulates a flight to the Moon and related experiments on the lunar surface. She is a Master of sports in polyathlon (all-around) and rafting, Kikina is a certified airborne instructor having 153 parachute jumps under her name.