Cosmonaut and MAI graduate student Anna Kikina compared Crew Dragon and Soyuz

The flight on Crew Dragon was very comfortable, said cosmonaut and graduate student of Moscow Aviation Institute Anna Kikina at a post-flight press conference at the Yury Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. On March 12, 2023, the Russian woman returned to Earth from the International Space Station on a SpaceX spacecraft. In October 2022, she launched with the crew of the Crew-5 mission. Anna Kikina spent 157 days in space and, among other things, controlled the ERA (European robotic arm) from the station, which aim is to help work in the outer space.

It is worth mentioning that the flight of Anna Kikina was the first case of a comeback of mutual cross-space missions after the Space Shuttle program was over: before that, for more than ten years, foreign astronauts were launched on Soyuz, and the United States did not have their own space transport.

— The positioning of the person in the chair (in the SpaceX ship. — Ed.) is more physiological than in our ship, and the body feels free, but this is due to the fact that the design of the ship is different, — stressed Anna.

The landing was quite comfortable too, the cosmonaut assured. American spaceships land on the water of the Atlantic Ocean, Russian ones land on the solid ground in the plains of Kazakhstan. At the same time, both of these variants have their own peculiarities, related, in particular, to the weather and the design of the spacecraft. For example, American land only on parachutes, and Soyuz has special engines to soften the landing.

— That's why they land on the water to make it softer, that's what the spacecraft is designed for (Crew Dragon. — Ed.), — explained Anna Kikina.

The Russian Falcon spacesuit is generally freer than the SpaceX spacesuit, the cosmonaut noted. The American is "closer to the body." In addition, Anna mentioned some differences in ensuring the tightness of the suit: as for Falcon, this is done due to tight closure in the abdomen, and as far as the the SpaceX spacesuit is concerned, this role is performed by special zippers on the legs and wrists. There is also a difference in how radio communication is provided.

— In a SpaceX spacesuit, the sound during radio exchange comes through special headphones that are inserted into the ears, anatomical, and the microphone is built into the helmet. And we have headsets in the Falcon spacesuit, which are first put on the head, and the radio exchange goes directly through the headset, — the cosmonaut said.

Many were interested in the possibility of manual control on the Crew Dragon ship — SpaceX always emphasizes that the flight on this ship is fully automated, but in the history of cosmonautics there are cases when problems with automation occurred and it was necessary to switch to manual control.

— SpaceX's policy is aimed at making space flights as automated as possible. That is, the minimum interference of the crew. They can be addressed to at certain — the most acute moments, when it comes to security, but most often the Earth still manages to track it. The participation of the Earth is very active, but the crew still has the opportunity to give particularly important commands, — Anna Kikina shared.

She added that she spent the acute phase of the first days of post-flight rehabilitation in the United States under the guidance of Russian specialists.

Anna Kikina is a postgraduate student of the MAI Department 614 "Ecology, life support systems and life safety". She studies safety issues of the preparation of astronauts for future lunar expeditions — the most promising space flights.