Cosmonaut

The United States will on Wednesday carry a Russian to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX ship, in a voyage that carries symbolic significance amid the Ukraine war.Anna Kikina, the only female cosmonaut in service, is part of the Crew-5 mission, which also includes one Japanese and two American astronauts.Blast-off is set for noon from the Kennedy Space Center, with the weather forecast so far promising.Two weeks ago, an American astronaut took off on a Russian Soyuz rocket for the orbital platform.The…

Cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev was ordered to return to the airlock immediately and connect to station power.Screenshot: NASA TVWednesday’s Russian spacewalk didn’t exactly go as planned as one cosmonauts’ spacesuit malfunctioned, forcing him to return to the International Space Station (ISS) due to an unexpected drop in voltage. About two hours into the spacewalk scheduled to install a giant robotic arm, cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev reported that the voltage of his spacesuit battery was low. Mission control ordered Artemyev to…

Today, two astronauts will be conducting a fairly standard spacewalk on the outside of the International Space Station, but the pair of spacewalkers is a bit unusual. The duo consists of cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev of Russia’s Roscosmos and Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency, spacefarers from two countries that do not typically conduct spacewalks together. The timing of the spacewalk comes amid strained relations between Russia and the European Union over the former’s decision to invade…

We'd give anything to hear the small talk in that spacecraft!Seat SwapIn spite of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the US is still planning to fly at least one cosmonaut to the International Space Station on a SpaceX rocket — if, that is, Roscosmos is still on board.As Ars Technica reports, NASA is still gung-ho about its scheduled September astronaut swap with Russian space agency Roscosmos. According to plan, cosmonaut Anna Kikina will fly to the ISS on a SpaceX Crew Dragon, while American astronaut Frank Rubio will get a…

NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn handed over command of the International Space Station to Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev in a traditional Change of Command ceremony today ahead of Crew-3’s departure tonight. Credit: NASA TV.<span class="glossaryLink" aria-describedby="tt" data-cmtooltip="<div class=glossaryItemTitle>NASA</div><div class=glossaryItemBody>Established in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the United States…