In a successful mission, SpaceX sent four astronauts to the International Space Station on Saturday, completing the journey in just 15 hours. The Crew Dragon capsule, carrying astronauts from the US, Japan, and Russia, lifted off from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre and docked with the ISS while soaring over the South Pacific.
The newly arrived astronauts consist of Nasa’s Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan’s Kimiya Yui, and Russia’s Oleg Platonov. They will remain on board for at least six months, replacing the astronauts who left in March. Their presence briefly puts the number of ISS crew at 11.
As reported by the Associated Press, each member of the new crew was initially assigned to different missions. Fincke and Yui were previously in training for Boeing’s Starliner missions, but persistent technical issues with the Starliner spacecraft, including thruster malfunctions, have grounded future launches until at least 2026. As a result, both astronauts were reassigned to this SpaceX mission.
Zena Cardman was also reassigned from a previous flight to accommodate Nasa astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, whose single-week Starliner test flight became a longer-than-nine-month residency because of continuing technical issues with the Boeing capsule.
Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, originally set to fly aboard a Soyuz spacecraft, was removed from the lineup a few years ago due to a then-undisclosed illness but has now made his spaceflight debut aboard Crew Dragon.
CREW MEMBERS SHARE REACTIONS
A short time after docking, astronaut Mike Fincke welcomed the ISS with a jovial “Hello, space station!” Cardman was amazed by the view during approach, stating, “It was such an unbelievably beautiful sight to see the space station come into our view for the first time.”
While SpaceX’s 15-hour flight was impressively quick by American standards, Russia still holds the record for the fastest trip to the ISS, completing the journey in just three hours aboard a Soyuz spacecraft.
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With inputs from Associated Press