Worldwide crew arrive at house station aboard SpaceX Dragon Endurance – Spaceflight Now

A SpaceX Crew Dragon ferry ship docked on the Worldwide House Station Sunday after a 29-hour rendezvous, bringing 4 contemporary crew members to the lab to interchange 4 others wrapping up a six-month keep in orbit.

Crew-7 commander Jasmin Moghbeli, European House Company astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov docked on the lab at 9:16 a.m. EDT. After in depth leak checks, hatches had been opened and the crew was welcomed aboard by the station’s seven crew members.

“Expedition 69 may be very glad to greet new crewmates,” stated ISS commander Sergey Prokopyev. He famous that house veterans Mogensen and Furukawa had been making their second go to to the station whereas Moghbeli and Borisov had been making their first flight.

“My excessive congratulations for Jasmin and Konstantin, this your first flight, you grew to become now actual astronaut and cosmonaut, and I imagine this can be (a) very vital occasion of your life. Welcome aboard. Trying ahead to working collectively.”

Moghbeli, a Marine Corps helicopter check pilot, stated “it’s so good to see all of your smiling faces. As you understand, we’ve been coaching collectively for some time for this precise second the place we may be part of you and proceed the wonderful work that’s achieved on the Worldwide House Station.

“I need to echo the due to all of the groups … for making ready us for this second. I believe we signify an excellent crew to be coming to the Worldwide House Station.”

Moghbeli and her Crew-7 colleagues blasted off from the Kennedy House Middle early Saturday atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It was NASA’s seventh operational Crew Dragon flight to the house station and the primary that includes crew members from 4 totally different house companies.

Their addition to the station crew, which incorporates United Arab Emirates Crew-6 astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, means 5 nations are represented aboard the appropriately named lab advanced — the USA, Russia, Japan, Denmark and United Arab Emirates.

However not for lengthy.

The Crew-7 fliers are changing Crew-6 commander Stephen Bowen, pilot Woody Hoburg, cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev and Alneyadi They plan to undock and return to Earth in rather less than per week to shut out a six-month mission.

Two weeks after the Crew-6 departure, on Sept. 15, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft will take off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub and NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara.

That crew, in flip, will substitute Prokopyev, Dmitri Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio. They’re scheduled to return to Earth on Sept. 27 to wrap up a marathon 371-day keep in orbit, setting a brand new U.S. file for longest single spaceflight.