NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission arrived at the International Space Station on Thursday afternoon.
The agency said that the Dragon Endurance spacecraft docked at the complex shortly after 5 p.m. ET.
After Dragon’s link up to the Harmony module, the hatch opened at 6:49 p.m. ET, following standard leak checks and pressurization.
NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina joined the Expedition 68 crew.
NASA, SPACEX CREW-5 MISSION LAUNCHES TO SPACE STATION
For a short time, the number of crew on the orbiting laboratory will increase to 11 people until Crew-4 departs.
That departure is slated to happen in approximately a week.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Endurance launched from the Florida-based Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A at noon ET.
The trip to the space station lasted 29 hours and the crew is scheduled for a stay of up to six months before returning to Earth next year.
“It was an outstanding launch,” Joel Montalbano, manager of the International Space Station Program at Johnson Space Center, said. “Just a fantastic day to be in human spaceflight.”
Crew-5 marks the first spaceflight for Mann, Cassada and Kikina, and the fifth for Wakata.
Mann has become the first Native American woman in space.
It was the first time in 20 years that a Russian hitched a ride from the Kennedy Space Center.
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