Crew-2 successfully docks with ISS after debris threatens spacecraft in orbit

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The NASA and SpaceX Crew-2 astronauts are getting settled into the International Space Station where they’ll be spending the next six months.

The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft successfully docked with the space station early Saturday.

Watch: ‘Endeavour launches once again’: NASA, SpaceX’s Crew-2 mission lifts off from Space Coast

The Crew-1 astronauts, already on the space station, welcomed their new members.

The space station will have tight crew quarters for the next week with 11 people on board at the same time.

The crew on the space station is even building extra beds.

Photos: NASA, SpaceX launch 4 astronauts from the Space Coast

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Photos: SpaceX launches 4 astronauts on reused capsule, rocket to International Space Station In this long exposure photo, photographers watch a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon space capsule lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, April 23, 2021. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

The Crew-2 launch Friday morning was picture perfect off Florida’s Space Coast, lighting up the skies up and down the east coast.

But the flight wasn’t without drama.

Space junk threatened the ship and forced the crew to get back inside their pressurized suits.

The space junk, traveling at more than 17,000 mph, came within 28 miles of the Crew Dragon, but thankfully missed it.

Watch: NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter completes historic first flight on Mars

Crew-2′s research on the space station will focus on viruses and treatments.

What they learn in almost no gravity could really help us have a better understanding about viruses on Earth.

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