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The newly launched SpaceX capsule with four astronauts on board has docked with the International Space Station (ISS), home to the crew for the next six months.
The Dragon capsule arrived at 11:01 p.m. ET after a 27-hour fully automated flight from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. There was a brief delay after “sunset” cast shadows across the docking area, making it more difficult for the crew to monitor the procedure.
The link occurred 262 miles (422 km) over Idaho. The crew entered the ISS shortly after 1 a.m. ET, and were warmly greeted with hugs by the station crew.
“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. “We can’t wait to have you on board,” he added after the two spacecraft joined together.
As they prepared for the space station connection, the Dragon crew broadcast live views of New Zealand and a bright blue, cloud-streaked Pacific 250 miles below.
“It looks amazing,” Mission Control radioed from SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California. “It looks amazing from here too,” Hopkins replied.
It is the first time that Elon Musk’s company has delivered a crew for a full half-year stay at the station.
The three Americans and a Japanese astronaut will remain in the orbiting lab until their replacements arrive at another Dragon capsule in April. And so it will continue, with SpaceX, and eventually Boeing, ferrying astronauts to and from the NASA station in a kind of galactic taxi service.
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 will be the first African American to move in for a long time. Glover, who was flying for the first time, 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 the touchscreen controls and storage areas.
Walker said it was a bit stricter for them than it was for the two astronauts on the test flight. “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.
As they prepared for the space station connection, the Dragon crew broadcast live views of New Zealand and a bright blue, cloud-streaked Pacific through the windows 250 miles (400 km) below.
“It looks amazing,” Mission Control radioed from SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
“It looks amazing from here too,” Hopkins replied.
