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Female cosmonaut Anna Kikina returns to Russia

After conducting an extensive medical examination at Russia’s Cosmonaut Training Center, experts will assess Anna Kikina’s condition and determine a further rehabilitation strategy

Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina and Oleg Kononenko Ivan Timoshenko/Roscosmos/TASS

Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina and Oleg Kononenko

© Ivan Timoshenko/Roscosmos/TASS

MOSCOW, March 22. /TASS/. The only female member of the Russian state space corporation Roscosmos’s cosmonaut team, Anna Kikina, has arrived in Russia from the United States, Roscosmos announced on Wednesday.

Anna Kikina was the first Russian cosmonaut to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) on a US Crew Dragon spaceship based on a Roscosmos-NASA seat swap agreement. In October 2022, Kikina, together with NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, as well as the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency’s astronaut Koichi Wakata, arrived at the ISS. On March 12, they splashed down into the Atlantic Ocean off Florida’s coast.

Kikina completed the first phase of her rehabilitation at NASA’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston. After conducting an extensive medical examination at Russia’s Cosmonaut Training Center, experts will assess Kikina’s condition and determine a further rehabilitation strategy.

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