Crew Dragon With Russian Cosmonaut Kikina on Board Undocks From ISS for Return Flight

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th March, 2023) The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying the Crew-5 mission team, including Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina, successfully undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday for a return flight back to Earth, according to a NASA broadcast.

Earlier this week, the departure was delayed due to unfavorable weather at the splashdown sites.

"Dragon will reenter the Earth's atmosphere and splashdown in (around) 19 hours," SpaceX said on Twitter.

Kikina arrived at the ISS in October 2022 as part on the multinational Crew-5 mission team, which also includes NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata.

She became the first Russian cosmonaut to board the US Crew Dragon spacecraft as part of the ISS integrated flights agreement signed by Roscosmos and NASA in July 2022. The first integrated flight under the agreement took place on September 21, 2022 and brought Russian cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin as well as NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio to the ISS aboard a Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft.