A Russian capsule carried an American astronaut into space today, marking a remarkable continuation of Russia-US cooperation in space at a time of great geopolitical tension.
The spacecraft lifted off from the famed Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and two Russian cosmonauts – Dmitri Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev – on a six-month stay aboard the International Space Station. Takeoff occurred at 9:54 am. ET.
This will be the first trip to space for Rubio, who will serve as a flight engineer on this mission. A trained family doctor, he also has experience as a flight surgeon – meaning he has the chops to take care of any medical issues that might arise during their trip.
Rubio, a native of Florida, joined NASA in 2017. Prior to his acceptance into the astronaut corps, he graduated from the US Military Academy and earned a doctorate in medicine from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. He has more than 600 hours of combat experience in countries such as Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. Rubio considers Miami his home, according to NASA, although he was born in California and his mother lives in El Salvador.
When Rubio and his Russian counterparts arrive at the space station, they will work with astronauts from the United States, Russia and Europe. The space station, which has been continuously manned since 2000, maintains a rotating base of crew members to ensure that the orbiting laboratory is consistently staffed with enough astronauts to maintain the space station’s hardware as well as to maintain a large diary of space experiments in operation.
The fact that Rubio is traveling in space in a Russian Soyuz capsule is remarkable.
The history of transporting people to and from the International Space Station began with Russia and the United States having their own rockets to transport their citizens to and from the ISS, which became a symbol of post-Cold War cooperation in the late 20th century and early 2000s. But after 2011, when NASA retired the Space Shuttle program, Russian Soyuz capsules were the only option for US astronauts. NASA has paid up to $90 million for seats on a Soyuz spacecraft.
In 2020, that changed. NASA had, years earlier, drawn up its own plan to allow private companies to take over the task of transporting astronauts to and from the space station. And Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been doing it ever since, starting with the Demo-2 mission in 2020 and, more recently, preparing for the Crew-5 mission. SpaceX launches have become routine for NASA, allowing it to regain control over how the ISS is staffed.
Tensions between the United States and Russia, however, reached a fever pitch after Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
But after years of riding together on Russian Soyuz vehicles before SpaceX came on the scene, one of the big questions that arose was whether the United States and Russia would continue to put their astronauts side by side on ISS missions.
That was answered in July when NASA and its Russian counterpart, Roscosmos, confirmed that seat-sharing on rocket rides to the space station would continue. Russian cosmonauts are now expected to fly in SpaceX capsules in addition to NASA astronauts who share seats on Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
The United States and Russia are the primary operators of the ISS, with the two countries controlling its day-to-day operations. Importantly, the Russian-controlled segment houses the propulsion necessary to keep the ISS afloat in Earth orbit. And NASA has repeatedly said one of its goals is to ensure continued cooperation between the US and Russia in space.
Rubio, like many American astronauts before him, traveled to Russia to train with Russian cosmonauts before this mission.
“It’s been a privilege to be here,” he told CNN’s Kristen Fisher during a news conference in August. “We have a pretty strong NASA team that’s here to support the mission … I think any of us would say we feel safe.”
