The NASA and SpaceX Crew-7 mission arrived this Sunday at the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Endurance Dragon spacecraft, to join the Expedition 69 crew that was located in the orbital laboratory.
The spacecraft carried an international crew of four representing four countries and docked autonomously to the ISS’s Harmony space launch pad at 9:16 a.m. ET, according to a live broadcast.
“Docking confirmed. The Dragon spacecraft with four space travelers on board has arrived at the Space Station,” NASA wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Confirmed docking for #crew7! At 9:16 am ET (1316 UTC), the Dragon spacecraft with four space travelers on board arrived at the @Spacial station. pic.twitter.com/BbNX804voe
—NASA (@NASA) August 27, 2023
The docking maneuver was slow until the ship found the correct position.
The trip to the orbital laboratory lasted about 30 hours, as confirmed by NASA. Approximately two hours later, after equalizing the pressures between the Endurance ship and the ISS, the hatch will open and the meeting between the newcomers and the Expedition 69 astronauts will take place.
The arrival of Crew-7 was broadcast live on NASA’s YouTube channel from the early hours of the morning and it was possible to observe how the Endurance base was opened after the docking maneuver.
Live the @SpaceX The Dragon Endurance spacecraft docks with the @Spacial station for our #crew7 mission after traveling about 30 hours to the orbital laboratory. Docking is scheduled for approximately 9:05 am ET (1305 UTC). https://t.co/9PEb3kdf5T
—NASA (@NASA) August 27, 2023
Crew-7 is the seventh manned mission of the US space administration to the ISS from NASA and SpaceX, it is led by astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, selected by NASA in 2017, and Andreas Mogensen, from the European Space Agency (ESA), who is the first Danish astronaut in history.
In addition, astronauts Satoshi Furukawa, from the Japanese agency JAXA, and Konstantin Borisov, from the Russian Roscosmos agency, traveled.
Liftoff, described by NASA as “successful,” took place Saturday morning from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
In a statement, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Saturday that “Crew-7 is a shining example of the power of American ingenuity and what is possible when we work together.”
As for the ISS Expedition 69 crew, it consists of NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen, Woody Hoburg and Frank Rubio, as well as United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitri Petelin and Andrey Fedyaev.
For a brief period, NASA details, the number of crew members aboard the ISS will increase to 11 until the members of Crew-6 return to Earth a few days later.
Source: TSF
