The First Native American Woman Travels into Space with NASA's Crew-5 Mission

Updated Oct 5, 2022

NASA's Commercial Crew Program is launching a crew of four astronauts on the fifth crew rotation mission to the International Space Station launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida's Kennedy Space Center Wednesday, Oct. 5 at noon EDT (rescheduled from Tuesday, October 4 at 12:23 pm ET).

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 sends astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada of NASA, astronaut Koichi Wakata of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), and cosmonaut Anna Kikina of Roscosmos, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the ISS.

With this launch, mission commander, Nicole Aunapu Mann, has become the first Native American woman to travel to space.

Mann told Reuters "I feel very proud. It's important that we celebrate our diversity and really communicate that specifically to the younger generation." Mann is a member of the Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes.

Crew-5 will spend roughly a day traveling to the ISS after launch. Once the new crew arrives, the members of the Crew-4 mission currently on the ISS will spend five days handing off duties to the new arrivals.

Once the handoff is complete, the astronauts of NASA's SpaceX Crew-4 mission will undock from the space station and splash down off the coast of Florida, concluding their long duration stay of around six months on the ISS.

The Crew-5 astronauts will live aboard the International Space Station for the next six months, conducting science experiments in areas including cardiac to prepare for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and to benefit life on Earth as well.