ORLANDO, Fla. — A refurbished SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying four astronauts arrived at the International Space Station Saturday morning.
What You Need To Know
- This is the second rotational manned mission to the ISS for SpaceX
- The team launched on a rocket with "flight-proven" hardware on board
- Meet the SpaceX Dragon Crew-2 team: NASA's Shane Kimbrough | ESA's Thomas Pesquet | JAXA's Akihiko Hoshide | NASA's Megan McArthur
NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, plus Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Aki Hoshide and European Space Agency's Thomas Pesquet, plan to spend six months on the ISS. They’ll replace four astronauts who will return to Earth in their own Dragon capsule Wednesday.
It was the first time two SpaceX crew Dragons were parked there at the same time — practically side by side.
“We are so excited to have you aboard,” radioed the space station’s commander, Shannon Walker.
Although this was SpaceX’s third crew flight for NASA, it was the first to use a vehicle that’s flown before, an essential part of Musk’s push to the moon and Mars. The Dragon capsule was used for SpaceX’s first crew launch last May, while the Falcon rocket soaring Friday hoisted crew two in November.
For the next four days, the space station will be home to 11 astronauts, just shy of the record of 13 set during NASA’s space shuttle era. The current population includes six Americans, two Russians, two Japanese and one French. It will shrink by four on Wednesday when three Americans and one Japanese depart for home and a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
Also heading up on the mission is a big upgrade to the orbiting outpost's solar power system.
A tissue chip experiment will also be conducted and scientists hope by studying the chips in the microgravity environment that will help develop safe vaccines for people here on Earth.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.