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CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: SpaceX’s newly launched capsule with four astronauts arrived on Monday (November 16) at the International Space Station, its new home until spring.
“Dragon SpaceX, soft catch confirmed,” said an announcer as the capsule completed its 27.5-hour journey at 11:01 pm (12:01 pm Singapore time), with the second part of the procedure, “hard catch,” occurring about minutes. then.
“Oh, what a good voice to hear,” shouted space station astronaut Kate Rubins when the Dragon’s commander, Mike Hopkins, made radio contact for the first time. The link occurred 422 km over Idaho.
This is SpaceX’s second astronaut mission. But it is the first time that Elon Musk’s company has delivered a team for a full half-year stay at the station. The test flight of two pilots earlier this year lasted two months.
In this NASA TV stills capture, the SpaceX Dragon capsule approaches the International Space Station on November 16, 2020 (NASA TV via AP).
The three Americans and a Japanese astronaut will remain in the orbiting lab until their replacements reach another Dragon in April. And so it will continue, with SpaceX, and eventually Boeing, transporting astronauts to and from the NASA station.
This regular taxi service got under way with the launch on Sunday night.
READ: SpaceX launches four astronauts to the ISS on Sunday
Hopkins and his crew, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi, join two Russians and an American who flew to the space station last month from Kazakhstan. Glover is the first African American to move in for a long time. Glover, a newcomer to space, received his gold astronaut badge on Monday.
All four named their capsule Resilience to bring hope and inspiration during an especially difficult year for everyone. They broadcast a tour of their capsule on Monday, showing off the touchscreen controls, storage areas, and their zero-gravity gauge – a little stuffed Baby Yoda.
Walker said it was a bit stricter for them than it was for the two astronauts on the test flight.
In this NASA TV still frame shot, astronauts Mike Hopkins, left, and Victor Glover’s monitor controls aboard SpaceX Dragon as the capsule approaches the International Space Station on November 16, 2020 (NASA TV via AP )
“Like we dance with each other to stay out of the way,” he said.
For Sunday’s launch, NASA kept guests to a minimum due to the coronavirus, and even Musk had to stay away after tweeting that he “most likely” had an infection. He was succeeded in his official launch duties by SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell, who assured reporters that he was still heavily involved in the action on Sunday night, albeit remotely.
READ: SpaceX launches second crew, regular station crew flights begin
As they prepared for the space station connection, the Dragon crew broadcast live views of the New Zealand window and a bright blue Pacific streaked with clouds some 400 km below.
“It looks amazing,” Mission Control radioed from SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
“It looks amazing from here too,” Hopkins replied.
