By Steve Gorman
(Reuters) – A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule arrived safely on the International Space Station (ISS) early on Friday, carrying two U.S. astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and a United Arab Emirates astronaut to start a six-month science mission.
The autonomously flying spacecraft dubbed Endeavour docked to the house station shortly after 1:40 a.m. EST (0640 GMT) on Friday, practically 25 hours after launching from NASA’s Kennedy Space Heart in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The coupling was confirmed because the ISS and capsule flew in tandem at 17,500 miles per hour (28,164 kph) some 250 miles (240 km) above Earth throughout the coast of East Africa, in accordance with a stay NASA webcast of the rendezvous.
The four-member staff was assigned to conduct greater than 200 experiments and know-how demonstrations aboard the house station, starting from analysis on human cell development in house to controlling flamable supplies in microgravity.
A few of the analysis will assist pave the best way for future long-duration human expeditions to the Moon and past below NASA’s Artemis program, its successor to Apollo, the U.S. house company mentioned.
The ISS crew is also chargeable for performing upkeep and repairs aboard the station, and to organize for the arrival and departure of different astronauts and cargo payloads.
Designated Crew 6, the mission marks the sixth long-duration ISS staff that SpaceX has flown for NASA because the personal rocket enterprise based by billionaire Elon Musk started sending American astronauts to orbit in Could 2020. Musk is CEO of electrical automotive maker Tesla and social media platform Twitter.
The newest crew was led by Stephen Bowen, 59, a onetime U.S. Navy submarine officer who has logged greater than 40 days in orbit as a veteran of three Space Shuttle flights and 7 spacewalks. Fellow NASA astronaut Warren “Woody” Hoburg, 37, {an electrical} engineer, laptop science professional and business aviator designated, was making his first spaceflight.
The Crew 6 mission additionally was notable for its inclusion of UAE astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, 41, the second individual from his nation to fly to house and the primary to launch from U.S. soil as a part of a long-duration house station staff.
Rounding out the four-man Crew 6 was Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, 42, who like Alneyadi is an engineer and spaceflight rookie designated as a mission specialist for the staff.
Fedyaev is the second cosmonaut to fly aboard an American spacecraft below a renewed ride-sharing deal signed in July by NASA and the Russian house company Roscosmos, regardless of heightened tensions between Washington and Moscow over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
On arrival, the crew ready to conduct a collection of ordinary leak checks and to pressurize the passageway between the capsule and the ISS earlier than they’ll open the hatch to the inside of the house station.
The Crew 6 staff will probably be welcomed aboard the house station by seven present ISS occupants – three NASA crew members, together with commander Nicole Aunapu Mann, the primary Native American girl to fly to house, alongside with three Russians and a Japanese astronaut.
These seven are anticipated to finish their mission and depart the house station this month. 4 will return within the SpaceX Dragon they rode to orbit in October, and three others will trip dwelling in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft flown empty to the ISS final week to interchange one which sprang a coolant leak whereas docked to the station in December.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles)
