The historic Crew-5 mission from SpaceX is on its way to the International Space Station (ISS). A Dragon capsule carrying four Crew-5 astronauts lifted out atop a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center's historic Launch Pad 39A today (Oct. 5) at noon EDT (1600 GMT), beginning a roughly 29-hour trek to the orbiting lab. NASA's Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, as well as Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and cosmonaut Anna Kikina, are among the four spaceflyers. Mann became the first Native American woman to reach the ultimate frontier today, while Kikina became the first Russian to travel aboard a private American spacecraft.
During a news conference held shortly after the Crew-5 astronauts landed at KSC on Oct. 1, Mann stated, I am very proud to represent Native Americans and my heritage.
We all come from quite diverse backgrounds. We all come from diverse educational backgrounds and employment expertise. And it's wonderful to see everyone coming together.
During the same ceremony, Kikina praised NASA, SpaceX, and Russian space authorities for their contributions to the Crew-5 mission.
She stated, we will do our job in the best way possible: happy.
The nine Merlin engines that power the Falcon 9's first stage roared to life when T-0 struck on today's instantaneous launch window, pushing the 230-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket off the pad. The engines shut down two minutes and 40 seconds into flight, and the Falcon 9 upper stage separated from the first-stage booster. Endurance parted from the upper stage as scheduled 12 minutes after liftoff, commencing its long solo chase to the ISS.
Wakata said mission control shortly after that milestone. It was a nice flight, and I see three smiling smiles here, all relieved to be back in zero-g. Thank you really much!
After separating from the upper stage, the Falcon 9 first stage was busy: around 9.5 minutes after launch, the rocket landed on Just Read the Instructions, a SpaceX drone ship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast. It was the first landing for this specific rocket, which made its inaugural voyage today. The booster sparkled pure white on the launch pad, which was unusual given that most SpaceX rockets these days are soot-blackened veterans with numerous flights under their belts.
Such reuse enables SpaceX to increase its efficiency and accomplish extraordinary launch cadences; Crew-5 was Elon Musk's company's 44th orbital flight of 2022. And SpaceX has two additional liftoffs scheduled in the near future. It intends to launch a large number of its Starlink internet satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California today afternoon, followed by two commercial communications satellites from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Thursday (Oct. 6).
SpaceX's crewed launches are also increasing: Crew-5 is the company's eighth astronaut flight, with two more slated until the end of spring 2023. Not all of these trips have been for NASA; in September 2021 and April of this year, SpaceX launched the orbital tourist projects Inspiration4 and Ax-1, respectively. (In addition to the five contractual missions to the ISS for NASA, SpaceX conducted the agency's crewed Demo-2 test mission to the ISS in 2020.)
Except for Wakata, all of the Crew-5 astronauts are first-time spaceflight crew members. Crew-5 is the fifth time the Japanese astronaut has launched into space, and Endurance is his third crew-rated spacecraft.
Mann announced this immediately after reaching orbit today. Whew! That was a smooth upward trip. We have three rookies that are overjoyed to be in space right now.
Endurance will dock with the ISS just before 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) on Thursday. The Crew-5 astronauts will spend nearly five months onboard the orbiting lab completing scientific experiments and other chores as part of ISS Expedition 68.
The foursome will be met by the station's current crew of seven on Thursday, four of whom are from SpaceX's Crew-4 mission, which is scheduled to depart the station in a few days. When Crew-4 departs, European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti will give over command of the International Space Station to Mann, who will keep the role until Crew-6 arrives next spring. Crew-5 was supposed to launch on Monday (Oct. 3), but NASA and SpaceX delayed it by two days due to Hurricane Ian. The storm also had an effect on NASA's much-anticipated Artemis 1 moon mission, which had to roll off KSC's Pad 39B to avoid the storm. Artemis 1 was supposed to launch on September 27, but NASA is now planning a launch between November 12 and November 27.