Overnight, the SpaceX Crew Dragon docked with the International Space Station after the crew blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in a historic Sunday night launch.
What You Need To Know
- 4 astronauts docked with ISS late Monday night Eastern time
- They're expected to stay on International Space Station for 6 months
- SpaceX plans 7 more Dragon missions to ISS, including 1 involving Tom Cruise
- RELATED: 4 Astronauts Lift Off From KSC on NASA's 1st Commercial Crew Mission to ISS
After the 30-hour journey, the four astronauts are now safely on board. NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Japanese space agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi arrived at 11 p.m. ET Monday to begin a six-month stay.
It will be the astronauts' new home for several months.
The hatches are open and NASA's @SpaceX Crew-1 astronauts Shannon Walker, @Astro_Soichi, @AstroVicGlover, and @Astro_illini are the newest residents aboard the @Space_Station. Welcome aboard! pic.twitter.com/WYwC7jRVQk
— NASA (@NASA) November 17, 2020
NASA leaders say this is the beginning of a new era, making history as the first operational crewed mission for the space agency’s commercial crew program.
"We're not done yet. We need to keep going. ... This mission was a dream. It was a dream of us to be able to one day have crewed transportation services to the International Space Station and today that dream became a reality," said Kathy Leuders, NASA Associate Administrator for Human Exploration.
"It's what makes human spaceflight so fun and challenging...it's that you always have to realize that you're maintaining human safety in a tough environment." NASA's head of human spaceflight @KathyLueders on what it means to have more crew members on orbit. pic.twitter.com/t5LmvIXhcO
— NASA (@NASA) November 17, 2020
Overall, it was a solid countdown Sunday at Launch Pad 39A, from where space shuttles once launched. But there were a few hiccups pre- and post-launch. Mission crews had to deal with a hatch problem after the four-member crew boarded the Crew Dragon spacecraft: Sensors showed a foreign object in the seal, but the SpaceX team was able to remove it and reseal the hatch.
After launch, controllers detected an on-orbit pressure spike involving the capsule's cooling system. But they were able to resolve the issue. Then, a software problem affected propellant line heaters within the spacecraft's thrusters. The team was able to reactivate all four heaters, and the journey to the ISS continued.
The orbiting outpost is becoming a very busy place. When the Crew-1 team arrived late Monday night, they joined the existing three-member crew, increasing the ISS occupancy to seven for the first time in its history.
The hatch opened and the welcome ceremony was set for 1:40 a.m. ET Tuesday.
SpaceX says that over the next 15 months, it plans seven more Dragon missions there. Two are Crew-2 and Crew-3, plus four cargo missions for NASA.
"We will be flying the Crew-2 in about 4 1/2 months, and then Crew-3 possibly six months later," SpaceX President and CEO Gwynne Shotwell said.
The remaining flight is for Axiom Space, a company that earlier this year announced a contract with SpaceX to fly a privately-trained astronaut and three private citizens on the first fully private mission to the ISS in late 2021.
One of those private astronauts possibly could be actor Tom Cruise, who plans to launch to space aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft for a stay at the orbiting outpost while filming a movie.