NASA and SpaceX Launch Crew-5 to the ISS with a Russian Cosmonaut

Launch of Crew-5 | Credit: John Kraus

On Wednesday, October 5 at 12:00pm EDT (16:00 UTC), SpaceX launched the Crew-5 mission to the ISS atop a Falcon 9 rocket from historic Launch Complex 39A in Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This is the 5th operational mission of the Crew Dragon spacecraft. The crew is: Nicole Aunapu Mann (NASA), pilot Josh Cassada (NASA), and mission specialists Koichi Wakata (JAXA) and Anna Kikina (Roscosmos). This is the first time that a Russian cosmonaut has flown on an American spacecraft for over 20 years. It is part of a crew swap in which a NASA astronaut flew on a Soyuz spacecraft.

Falcon 9 at LC-39A with the Starship launch tower | Image by Lane Breckenridge for Future Astronaut