Anna Kikina

Anna Yuryevna Kikina is a Russian engineer and test cosmonaut, selected in 2012. She is the only woman cosmonaut currently in active service at Roscosmos. In June 2020, fellow cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko said that Kikina was expected to fly on a fall 2022 mission to the International Space Station and perform a spacewalk during the mission. In September 2021, RIA Novosti reported that Kikina had been assigned to the Soyuz MS-22 mission, set to launch on 21 September 2022, for a 188-day mission. In December 2021, Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin announced she would fly on an "American commercial spacecraft" in September 2022, while a NASA astronaut would take her seat on Soyuz making her the first Russian cosmonaut to fly a Crew Dragon and the first Roscosmos cosmonaut to fly aboard a U.S. spacecraft since 2002. In October 2022, the commercial flight launched as the SpaceX Crew-5 Crew Dragon.

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SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket and NBC's Tom Costello spoke with crew members about the collaboration between the U.S. and Russia on the mission. Cosmonaut Anna Kikina: "We are focusing on our common unique single aim and we have not a time for something else"

Anna Kikina Speaks About Preparations for Flight on Crew Dragon Spacecraft and ISS-68 Expedition

Russia will make its decision on astronaut seat-swap with NASA by June: Roscosmos Chief. If Anna Kikina's flight in the SpaceX Dragon capsule is approved, she would become the first female cosmonaut to fly in an American-made spacecraft

Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina will fly on SpaceX's Crew-5 mission to the International Space Station

Roscosmos: Anna Kikina may be Russia’s first cosmonaut on US Crew Dragon in 2022

Russia's only woman cosmonaut, Anna Kikina, inspires one-of-a-kind Barbie doll