Nicole Mann becomes first Native American woman in space on Crew-5 mission

Nicole Mann has become the first Native American woman in space as she lifted off in command of a flight to the International Space Station on Wednesday that also included the first Russian to join a US space flight since the invasion of Ukraine.

Mann's journey on the launch vehicle, which consists of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket topped with a Crew Dragon capsule named Endurance, took off on schedule at noon from Nasa's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The four-member crew is scheduled to arrive at the ISS after about 29 hours, on Thursday evening, to begin a 150-day science mission aboard the orbital laboratory 250 miles (420km) above Earth.

The mission, designated Crew-5, marks the fifth full-fledged ISS crew Nasa has flown aboard a SpaceX vehicle since the private rocket venture, founded by the Tesla owner, Elon Musk, began sending US astronauts aloft in May 2020.

Mann, 45, is a veteran combat pilot who has made spaceflight history not just as the first indigenous woman in orbit but as the first woman to command a Crew Dragon capsule.

Her team includes the Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina, who is hitching a ride alongside the American astronaut Josh Cassada and Japan's Koichi Wakata.

Nicole Aunapu Mann was selected by NASA in June 2013. She launched to the International Space Station as commander of NASA's SpaceX Crew-5 mission aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft on October 5, 2022.

The California native holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering. Mann is a Colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps and served as a test pilot in the F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet. She deployed twice aboard aircraft carriers in support of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

She is the first indigenous woman from NASA to go to space. She is registered with the Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes.

She graduated from Rancho Cotate High School, Rohnert Park, California and earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the United States Naval Academy in 1999. She earned a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering with a specialty in Fluid Mechanics from Stanford University in 2001.

In July 2012, Mann was assigned to PMA-281 as the Joint Mission Planning System - Expeditionary (JMPS-E) Integrated Product Team (IPT) Lead when she was selected as an astronaut candidate. She has accumulated more than 2,500 flight hours in 25 types of aircraft, 200 carrier arrestments and 47 combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mann was selected in June 2013 as one of eight members of the 21st NASA astronaut class. Her astronaut candidate training included intensive instruction in International Space Station systems, spacewalks, Russian language training, robotics, physiological training, T-38 flight training, and water and wilderness survival training. She completed astronaut candidate training in July 2015. She has served as the T-38 Safety and Training Officer and as the Assistant to the Chief Astronaut for Exploration where she led the astronaut corps in the development of the Orion spacecraft, Space Launch System, and Exploration Ground Systems for missions to the Moon.