SpaceX spacecraft carrying Russian female cosmonaut lifts off to ISS

WASHINGTON. Oct 5 (Interfax) - A Crew Dragon manned spacecraft of the United States company SpaceX lifted off to carry an international crew to the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reported.

The crew includes NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Kochi Wakata, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina.

A Falcon 9 launch vehicle carrying the Crew Dragon lifted off at noon EST from 39A launch pad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Around 12 minutes into the flight, the spacecraft was to separate from stage 2 of the launch vehicle to start its autonomous flight to the ISS.

The Crew Dragon is supposed to dock automatically with the Harmony module of the U.S. segment of the ISS at 4:57 p.m. EST on Thursday. The crew should spend 145 days on board the station.

This is the first time a Roscosmos cosmonaut is flying on board a Crew Dragon.

In July 2022, Roscosmos and NASA signed an agreement under the ISS program on cross-flights of three Russian cosmonauts on board Crew Dragon and three U.S. astronauts on board Soyuz MS manned spacecraft in 2022-2024.