The astronaut revealed the surprise that was prepared on the ISS for Anna Kikina

Russian woman flew to the space station on Elon Musk’s ship

Russian woman Anna Kikina received a bouquet of origami flowers from fellow cosmonauts who met her on board the International Space Station (ISS). Sergei Prokopiev conveyed this information directly from the shave specifically for MK.

Recall that Anna Kikina arrived at the ISS on Friday as part of the Crew-5 mixed crew. It will provide spacewalks for our cosmonauts and control the European ERA manipulator arm.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX spacecraft carrying the crew of the Crew-5 mission landed at the Harmony Node Module on October 7, 2022 at 00:01 Moscow time.

After opening the transfer hatches, NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Kassada, JAXA (Japanese Space Agency) astronaut Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina joined the crew of the 68th long-term expedition — Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopiev and Dmitry Petelin, NASA astronauts Chell Lindgren, Robert Hines , Jessica Watkins and Francisco Rubio, and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti. Thus, now a very large team has gathered on board the ISS – 11 (!) people.

Anna Kikana became the sixth Russian woman in space and the first representative of Roscosmos to fly on the Crew Dragon spacecraft.

On board the ISS, she immediately joined the Russian crew, with whom she will work for the next six months. The cabin for her was prepared in advance in the Nauka multi-purpose laboratory module, docked to the station last summer.

– Due to the fact that the bears with the gypsies could not attend the meeting ceremony, we had to get by with origami – paper flowers and a delicious dinner, – cosmonaut Sergei Prokopyev told MK. He also added that with his partner, Dmitry Petelin, they pleased Anna with the special decoration of her cabin.

According to Sergei Prokopyev, during the entire period of their stay at the station, the Russians will have to make five spacewalks. So, immediately upon arrival at the ISS on September 21, the preparation of spacesuits for the first exit began. The next sessions of extravehicular activity will follow the first with breaks every other week. The main work will be related to the integration of the “Science” module into the general view of the station.

As for Anna Kikina, she will not personally work in outer space, but she will definitely help her colleagues – Sergey Prokopiev and Dmitry Petelin, using an external ERA manipulator. Before the flight, Anna had to work out all the operations in the hydro laboratory of the Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City.

Help “MK”

Anna Kikina was born on August 27, 1984 in Novosibirsk. Before her passion for astronautics, she became a master of sports of Russia in polyathlon (all-around) and rafting, as well as a member of the Gorno-Altai team in rowing slalom and a silver medalist at the Ski Track of Russia. Behind her shoulders are courses at the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Novosibirsk State Academy of Water Transport in the specialties “Protection in emergency situations”, “Economics and management at the enterprise (transport)”. Anna worked as a program director at Radio Siberia Altai LLC, where she learned about the recruitment for astronauts.

“Before that, I didn’t even think about space,” the press service of Roscosmos quotes her as saying. However, from 2012 to 2014, she successfully completed general space training, learning to fly the L-39 aircraft, parachute jump (she made 153 jumps), passed training in weightlessness on board the Il-76MDK laboratory aircraft, tests in the sound chamber, diving training , as well as survival training in various climatic and geographical zones. As a result of this training, she was eventually accepted to the position of test cosmonaut of the Roscosmos cosmonaut corps.