A SpaceX Dragon Crew safely reentered the International Space Station on Friday after their SpaceX Crew-6 mission successfully docked, a NASA livestream showed. The crew of four — including two US astronauts and Russia’s cosmonaut — entered the station about two hours after their ship successfully arrived.
The Dragon, towed to the station by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, successfully docked to the Harmony module of the outpost at 1:40 a.m. EST on Friday after mission teams worked around a faulty sensor on one of 12 docking hooks to lock the capsule in place. Once all hooks were retracted, the capsule’s airtight structural seal was verified by leak checks, and hatches were opened to welcome its new crew.
In addition to the two US astronauts and Russia’s explorer, the station’s six-month expedition welcomes a UAE flier, Sultan Alneyadi, and two Saudi Arabian settlers on a commercial SpaceX mission managed by Houston-based Axiom Space. They will remain on the station for about a week before flying home with their Crew-3 crewmates, which includes another first-time flier, European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Marshburn.
During this spaceflight, the crew of four will conduct over 200 science experiments and technology demonstrations to help prepare for future missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
The crew will also work on a robotics experiment to test how to use robots and other tools to scout out the surface of the Moon. The experiment is expected to be completed in early 2020.
A live stream will allow viewers to follow the mission’s progress. You can watch the live stream on YouTube (opens in a new tab) or on NASA TV via this link.
After docking, the capsule performed a series of thruster burns to guide it back to Earth. It’s now performing a deorbit burn to return to the atmosphere. It will make its splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, off the Florida coast at 10:33 p.m. EST, according to the launch control center at SpaceX’s Hawthorne, California, headquarters.
The crew of four will remain aboard the station for about six months to perform over 200 science experiments and demonstrate technologies that will prepare for future spaceflight. Once the crew leaves the outpost, they will fly back to Earth aboard SpaceX’s Dragon Endurance.
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