SpaceX’s newly launched capsule Four astronauts have docked the crew’s home with the International Space Station for the next six months with onboard.
The Dragon Capsule arrived at ET at 11.01 a.m. 27 hours later, a fully automatic flight from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The “sunset” caused a slight delay after shadows were cast in the Doc King area, making it more difficult for the crew to oversee the process.
The linkup is 262 miles (422 km) from Idaho.
Mike Hopkins, the dragon’s commander, called out to space station astronaut Kate Rubins, “Oh, what a sound.” After the two spacecraft joined together, he added, “We can’t wait for you to come on board.”
As they prepared for the space station linkup, the Dragon Crew was beaming over New Zealand’s live window views and a bright blue, cloud-perforated Pacific 250 kilometers below.
The Mission Control Radio from SpaceX headquarters in Hthorney, California, “looks awesome. “It sounds amazing from here, too,” Hopkins replied.
This is the first time Elon Musk’s company has delivered crews for full half-year station investment.
Three Americans and a Japanese astronaut will remain in orbit lab until their replacement on another dragon capsule in April. And so it will move forward with SpaceX – and eventually Boeing – transporting astronauts from the station to NASA and into a kind of galaxy taxi service.
Hopkins and his crew – Victor Glover, Shannon Waker and Sochi Noguchi of Japan – joined two Russians and an American who flew from Kazakhstan to the space station last month. Glover will be the first African-American to move long distances. The first-time flyer, Glover, was presented with his gold astronaut pin on Monday.
These four people named their capsule relaxation to provide hope and inspiration to the whole world during a particularly difficult year. They aired a tour of their capsule on Monday, showing touchscreen controls and storage areas.
Vaker Kare said the test flight was a little tougher for him than the two astronauts. “We dance around each other to stay away from each other’s ways.”
For the start of Sunday, NASA kept guests to a minimum due to the coronavirus, and even Musk had to stay away after tweeting that he was “mostly” infected. Gwynn Shotwell, president of SpaceX, replaced him in his official launch duties, assuring reporters that he was still heavily involved in Sunday night’s proceedings, albeit remotely.
As they prepared for the space station linkup, the dragon crew sat down 250 miles (400 km) in a bright blue, cloud-drawn Pacific with live window views of New Zealand.
The mission control radio from SpaceX headquarters in Hthorney, California, “looks awesome.
“It looks wonderful from here, too,” Hopkins replied.
