SpaceX rocket launches; Russian among crew of 4

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION IS DESTINATION

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SpaceX Crew-5 astronauts, from left, Anna Kikina, of Russia; Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann, of the U.S.; and Koichi Wakata, of Japan, pose for a photo Wednesday. JOHN RAOUX — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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By Kenneth Chang

The New York Times

A SpaceX rocket carrying four astronauts to the International Space Station launched on Wednesday.

The rocket lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida just after noon on Wednesday. It is to arrive at the space station late this afternoon.

One of the passengers of the mission, Crew-5, is a Russian astronaut, Anna Kikina. Her presence on the spacecraft shows that cooperation is continuing between the United States and Russia on the International Space Station in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The other crew members on Wednesday’s flight are Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada of NASA and Koichi Wakata of JAXA, the Japanese space agency. The four will spend half a year in orbit on the space station.

In July, NASA and Roscosmos, the state corporation that oversees the Russian space industry, completed an agreement to fly Russian astronauts on American rockets and NASA astronauts on Russian Soyuz rockets. As part of the arrangement, Frank Rubio, a NASA astronaut, launched on a Soyuz last month. Kikina is the first Russian to ride in a SpaceX rocket.

In recent years, even before the war of Ukraine, Russian and American officials contemplated the future of the International Space Station. The outpost in orbit has been continuously occupied since 2000 and is jointly managed by both countries.

The current agreement to manage the station ends in 2024. During the Trump administration, NASA officials proposed retiring the International Space Station and turning to commercial alternatives. However, no private space stations seemed likely to be launched that quickly, and NASA now says it would like to extend operations on the ISS through 2030.

Russia has said it will build its own space station, but it has also indicated that it will not leave the ISS until that is ready. While Dmitry Rogozin, the former director general of Roscosmos, made bombastic threats that Russia would leave the project, Russia never gave official notice that it would leave before the end of the agreement in 2024.

Russia, like the other countries involved with the space station, is currently talking with NASA about the proposed 2030 extension. Russia has suggested its participation might not continue for so long.