Recycled SpaceX capsule delivers 4 astronauts to ISS
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A screengrab from Nasa's live feed shows the astronauts aboard the Endeavour spacecraft after docking at the International Space Station yesterday. It was the first time a capsule was reused for crewed spaceflight.
PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
WASHINGTON • A recycled SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule with four astronauts has docked with the International Space Station (ISS), the third time Mr Elon Musk's company has safely delivered humans to the orbital outpost.
The spacecraft named Endeavour, piloting itself autonomously, began docking at 5.08am Eastern time (5.08pm Singapore time) yesterday above the south Indian Ocean. The process was completed around 10 minutes later.
"Hard capture complete, welcome Crew-2," said US astronaut Shannon Walker, current commander of the ISS.
"Thanks Shannon, we're glad to be here," Endeavour's commander, US astronaut Shane Kimbrough, replied. The crew were to begin boarding after 7.15am Eastern time once the hatches were opened.
The Crew-2 mission, which includes the first European, Mr Thomas Pesquet of France, blasted off from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida before dawn on Friday, around 23 hours earlier.
Endeavour first flew to the ISS on the Demo-2 mission in May last year, ending almost a decade of US reliance on Russia for rides to the ISS following the end of the Space Shuttle era.
It was the first time a capsule has been reused for crewed spaceflight and the mission also featured a reused rocket, accomplishing key cost-saving goals of Nasa's partnerships with private industry.
Two Crew Dragons are now parked side by side at the ISS, underscoring hard-charging SpaceX's position as the US space agency's primary transport provider.
Mr Musk has made no secret of his push to drive humanity onwards to the Moon and Mars, and told a post-launch press conference: "I think we're at the dawn of a new era of space exploration."
The arrival of the latest space quartet, which includes American Megan McArthur and Japan's Akihiko Hoshide, will bring the number of people on the station to 11.
That is two shy of the record of 13 set in 2009. The mission is also a major milestone for Europe, which named the mission Alpha, after the star system Alpha Centauri.
The Crew-2 team has around 100 experiments in the diary during their six-month mission.
These include research into what are known as "tissue chips" - small models of human organs that are made up of different types of cells and used to study things like ageing in the immune system, kidney function and muscle loss.
In terms of the environment, by the time Crew-2 returns in fall, it will have taken 1.5 million images of the Earth, documenting pheno-mena like artificial lighting at night, algal blooms and the break-up of Antarctic ice shelves.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
