ANU astrophysicist and cosmologist Dr Brad Tucker says the SpaceX Crew 5 mission launched early on Thursday shows launches are “getting pretty regular” for the company.
“They do these five- to six-month rotations on behalf of NASA, so they send the astronauts up, they do experiments, they conduct operations on the International Space Station,” he told Sky News Australia.
Dr. Tucker said this mission is the first time a Native American woman has gone into space and a Russian cosmonaut was on board.
“In the past, these missions, these stays, have been bringing together Americans, Russians and some other countries,” he said.
“Obviously with the war in Ukraine tensions have been high, even in space, and we’ve seen the Americans still go with the Russians in the Russian capsule, but this is the first time a Russian has went in a SpaceX capsule.
“It’s a good sign for both science and international peace and diplomacy.”