On October 5th, American Nicole Aunapu Ma nn, from California, became the fi rst indigenous woman to take part in a space mission. The Crew-5 mission was carried out by NASA, the United States space agency, and its destination was the International Space Station (ISS). For a period of fi ve months, the team will conduct around 200 scientifi c experiments there in areas such as the development of new types of rocket fuel.

The crew took off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard the Falcon 9 rocket and took approximately 29 hours to reach the ISS. Together with Nicole Mann were Josh Cassada, also from NASA; Koichi Wakata of the Japan Space Agency; and Anna Kikina, a cosmonaut for a Russian space agency called Roscomos.

Mann is the mission commander. This means that she was responsible for ensuring that the rocket follows the correct route from the time of take-o_ until the arrival at the station. She will have the same role on the return trip.

In an interview with the BBC news network, Mann said she hopes her trip “will inspire young Native American children to follow their dreams and realise that some of those barriers […] are being broken down”. She is a member of the Wailacki Nation, one of six Native American nations on the Round Valley Reservation in California. According to the most recent official data from the 2000 US Census, more than 300 people live on the reservation.

In addition to this historic feat, Mann may also be part of another female astronaut milestone. She is part of NASA’s Artemis Program, whose goal is to take the first woman to the moon by 2026. For this reason, the astronaut is one of the candidates for the journey.

Glossary

Cosmonaut: how Russians refer to astronauts.

Questions

1) What will the mission commanded by Nicole Mann do on the ISS?

a) Research ways to travel to the Moon.

b) Develop vegetable crops outside Earth.

c) Create a new path from Earth to the ISS.

d) Develop new types of rocket fuel.

2) What technology would you like to develop for space travel?

Sources: CNN Brasil, Estadão, G1 and Nasa

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