BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — After a 30-hour journey, four NASA astronauts have arrived at the International Space Station.
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SpaceX Crew-7 Spacecraft Commander Jasmin Moghbeli, Pilot Andrews Mogensen along with Mission Specialists Satoshi Furukawa and Konstantin Borisov successfully docked with the ISS complex at 9:16 a.m. Sunday morning.
A Falcon 9 rocket launched the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, named Endurance, into orbit from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida early Saturday morning following a late scrub Friday.
After their link up to the space station’s “Harmony” module, the astronauts on board the Dragon and the space station will work together to perform standard leak and pressurization checks in preparation for the actual opening of the hatch.
Once on board, the Crew-7 astronauts will join the space station’s Expedition 69 crew of NASA astronauts for several days of handover activities with the departing Crew-6 mission astronauts.
After completing the handover period, the Crew-6 astronauts, whose mission began with a launch from the space coast back in March, will undock from the ISS and splash down later off the coast of Florida.
For their own 6-month mission aboard the orbiting laboratory, Crew-7 will conduct new research meant to prepare humans for exploration beyond low-Earth orbit, including the collection of microbial samples from the exterior of the space station and the first study of the human response to different space flight durations.
To learn more about the Crew-7 mission and astronauts, click here.
Welcome #Crew7, to the International @Space_Station. Commander @AstroJaws and her crewmates are beginning a mission of about six months living and working on our orbiting lab. pic.twitter.com/Tr4p1wP4lR
— NASA (@NASA) August 27, 2023
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