WASHINGTON — A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying 4 people representing 4 different space agencies docked with the International Space Station Aug. 27, almost 30 hours after its launch from Florida.
The Crew Dragon spacecraft Endurance docked with the zenith port of the station’s Harmony module at 9:16 a.m. Eastern. While the docking took place nearly 45 minutes later than previously announced, NASA reported no issues with the spacecraft’s approach or docking with the station.
Endurance launched Aug. 26 on the Crew-7 mission to the ISS, the seventh crew rotation mission by SpaceX under a business crew transportation contract with NASA. NASA’s original contract with SpaceX, awarded in 2014, included six operational missions but has since been prolonged twice and now covers 14 missions.
Crew-7 is commanded by NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, who’s on her first flight to space. European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen, who flew to the ISS on a Soyuz in 2015 for a 10-day mission, is the pilot. Satoshi Furukawa of the Japanese space agency JAXA and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov are mission specialists. Furukawa flew a long-duration mission to the ISS in 2011 while Borisov is on his first trip to space.
The 4 praised the performance of the Crew Dragon spacecraft in comments shortly after docking. “I actually have to maintain reminding myself this shouldn’t be only a dream,” Moghbeli said, thanking SpaceX teams for the training leading as much as the launch.
“It was similar to a training session in Hawthorne, California,” where SpaceX is headquartered, added Furukawa.
The 4 members of Crew-7 are slated to spend six months on the ISS. They’ll spend the subsequent few days overlapping with their Crew-6 counterparts, who’re wrapping up their very own six-month stay on the ISS.
The 4 people of Crew-6 — NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev — are scheduled to depart the station on the Crew Dragon spacecraft Endeavour no sooner than Sept. 1, depending on weather at splashdown sites off the Florida coast.