CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX’s latest astronaut mission for NASA has reached its destination.
The Mission Crew-5 launched yesterday (October 5) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, sending a Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket. This dragon, named Endurance, caught up with the international space station (ISS) today (October 6), after a 29-hour orbital pursuit.
Endurance made contact with the station’s Harmony module forward port at 5:01 p.m. EDT (2101 GMT), as the two spacecraft flew over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of West Africa. The docking operation was completed about 10 minutes later.
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After: SpaceX Crew-5 Astronaut Mission: Live Updates
The hatches between Endurance and the ISS opened at approximately 6:45 p.m. EDT (2245 GMT) and Crew-5 astronauts – NASA’s Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Japan’s Koichi Wakata and cosmonaut Anna Kikina – floated aboard the orbiting lab about 10 minutes later. They will live on the ISS for five months.
Newcomers will say a few words during a welcome ceremony, which is scheduled to take place at 8:05 p.m. EDT (0005 GMT on October 7). You can watch it live here on Space.com.
Mann and Kikina have the honor of wearing personal coats for this mission: Mann is the first Native American woman in space, and Kikina is the first cosmonaut to fly on a SpaceX Dragon. Both are spaceflight rookies, as is Cassada; Wakata has now been to space five times.
The Dragon Endurance also carried SpaceX Mission Crew-3 to the ISS and back. SpaceX operates a fleet of four Crew Dragon capsules, which are refurbished and tested before each reflight. Endurance flew with a combination of new and old components, including a new heat shield, parachutes, and nose cone.
SpaceX is also well known for flying used rockets, but the Crew-5 liftoff featured a Falcon 9 with a brand new first floor. The booster, painted with NASA’s worm logo, was stark white, free of the soot that’s a familiar sight on the company’s revved first stages.
“We love getting the new boosters,” NASA Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich said yesterday at a post-launch press conference.
“Every time SpaceX puts a new booster into the fleet, they keep making…safety enhancements to the boosters,” Stich explained. we greatly appreciate it.”
Crew-5 astronauts join seven crewmates already aboard the ISS, four of whom are members of SpaceX Mission Crew-4. The arrival of Crew-5 begins the countdown to Crew-4’s departure from the station, which will take place in about a week, said Sarah Walker, director of Dragon mission management at SpaceX.
The exact timing of Crew-4’s return to the Florida coast depends on the weather, Walker said at yesterday’s post-launch press conference.
“So we will continue to monitor the weather,” she said. “The vehicle that is on board to support the Crew-4 mission is in good health, and we will simply monitor these conditions to get the crew home safely.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 7 p.m. EDT with news of the hatch opening and the transfer of Crew-5 astronauts from Endurance to the ISS.
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