Four Astronauts arrive at International Space Station in SpaceX Capsule
A Dragon capsule launched by SpaceX on Sunday night carried four astronauts to the International Space Station where they will stay until spring.
The automated flight, 27 hours long, began with a dramatic night launch from Kennedy Space Center. The SpaceX capsule carrying 4 NASA astronauts then docked with the International Space Station late on Monday night.
Watch the SpaceX video replay of Crew Mission 1 Docking with the ISS below:
The connection occurred when the capsule was 262 miles above the Earth. Kate Rubins, on making the first radio contact to the dragon’s commander, remarked how pleasant it was to hear a human voice.
This is the second time that SpaceX has launched an astronaut crew to the ISS. The first mission in October was a test mission with 2 crew onboard. This mission, Crew Mission 1, was the first official crew delivery to the ISS and marks the beginning of a new future for American astronauts traveling into orbit and beyond.
The next replacement crew for ISS is planned in April. Until then, the astronauts, a Japanese and 3 Americans, will be staying in the orbit lab.
This new crew is now united the three already onboard the ISS, including 2 Russians and an American. One of the members of this week’s Hopkins crew, Glover, is the only African-American who went for such a long journey.
The 4 members of the crew have named the capsule ‘Resilience’, owed to the fact that times are really hard for the entire world due to pandemic, and this mission can serve as hope. There was a video broadcast on Monday displaying the storehouse, screen controls and the gravity indicator while touring their capsule.
For the launch, guests were kept to minimum due to coronavirus. Even the founder of SpaceX, Elon Musk didn’t join as he tweeted that he probably has an infection.
Instead, Elon Musk’s SpaceX was represented by Gwynne Shotwell, the president of SpaceX. While Elon Musk assured that he was quite involved, just a little remotely.
Dragon crew channeled the live streams showing views of New Zealand and the pacific almost 250 miles below when they were nearing the altitude to link-up. The SpaceX headquarters radioed saying that the view looks beautiful.
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