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.