NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission He arrived at the International Space Station on Thursday afternoon.
The agency said the Dragon Endurance spacecraft docked at the complex shortly after 5 p.m. ET.
After Dragon joined the Harmony unit, the hatch opened at 6:49 p.m. ET, following standard leak and pressure checks.
NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos astronaut Anna Kekina join the Expedition 68 crew.
NASA’s SPACEX CREW-5 mission takes off to the space station
For a short time, the number of crew in the orbital laboratory will increase to 11 people until the departure of Crew-4.
That departure is scheduled to happen in about a week.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Endurance Rocket It was launched from Launch Complex 39A of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at noon EST.
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Journey to the space station It lasted 29 hours and the crew is scheduled to stay for up to six months before returning to Earth next year.
“It was a fantastic launch,” said Joel Montalbano, ISS program manager at Johnson Space Center. “Just a wonderful day to be in human spaceflight.”
Crew-5 marks the first spaceflight for Mann, Cassada and Kikina, and the fifth for Wakata.
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Mann became the first Native American woman in space.
It was the first time in 20 years that a Russian had boarded a flight from the Kennedy Space Center.
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