Anna Kikina is the first Russian astronaut to launch on an American rocket in 20 years Image: Maksim Blinov/Sputnik/dpa/picture alliance Her presence aboard the mission was announced in July as the result of a crew swap that put a NASA astronaut on a Russian flight to the ISS. Kikina is headed to the International Space Station (ISS), where she will live for over four months as a member of the SpaceX Crew-5 mission. NASA seems confident as of now that all this can still go according to plan.The war in Ukraine has put a halt to most of Russia’s political, scientific and academic collaboration with the West.īut one project continues moving forward despite the conflict: Last week, Anna Kikina became the first Russian astronaut to launch on an American rocket in 20 years - and the only cosmonaut to ever board a SpaceX vessel. After that, a handful of commercial space stations are headed to orbit through NASA’s Commercial LEO Destinations (CLD) program. Still, NASA’s plans currently rely on keeping the ISS up and running through 2030 to avoid a gap in access to LEO. And the West’s 20-plus years of sustained crewed presence in space would be cut off. On the off chance that the ISS is deorbited and decommissioned, Tiangong could be up there alone for a while. ![]() China is currently two-thirds of the way through the buildout of its Tiangong space station. Looking forward: LEO could look very different in the coming years.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |