December 22, 2024

SpaceX Dragon Docks to ISS – Expedition 69 Welcomes NASA Crew-7 Members Aboard Station

The SpaceX Dragon Endurance crew ship is envisioned from a window aboard the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour team ship. Stamina is docked to the Harmony modules forward-facing port while Endeavour is docked to Harmonys space-facing port on the International Space Station. From left, Konstantin Borisov of Roscosmos, Andreas Mogensen of ESA, Jasmin Moghbeli of NASA, and Satoshi Furukawa of JAXA.

The main Crew-7 portrait. From left, Konstantin Borisov of Roscosmos, Andreas Mogensen of ESA, Jasmin Moghbeli of NASA, and Satoshi Furukawa of JAXA. Credit: Bill Stafford and Robert Markowitz, NASA
Crew-7 signs up with the Expedition 69 team of NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen, Woody Hoburg, and Frank Rubio, in addition to UAE astronaut (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitri Petelin, and Andrey Fedyaev.
This increases the variety of team aboard the space station to 11 individuals. This will just last for a brief time till Crew-6 members Bowen, Hoburg, Alneyadi, and Fedyaev go back to Earth in a couple of days.
NASA television will continue live coverage through the inviting ceremony at roughly 11:30 a.m.

The SpaceX Dragon Endurance team ship is visualized from a window aboard the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour team ship. Endurance is docked to the Harmony modules forward-facing port while Endeavour is docked to Harmonys space-facing port on the International Space Station. (Photo taken on April 12, 2022.) Credit: NASA
NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov came to the International Space Station as the SpaceX Dragon, named Endurance, docked to the complex at 9:16 a.m. EDT on Sunday while the station was 261 statute miles over Queensland, Australia.
The SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft approaches the space station as it soars over Ontario on August 27, 2023. Credit: NASA TV
Following Dragons link up to the Harmony module, the astronauts aboard the Dragon and the spaceport station started performing basic leak checks and pressurization between the spacecraft in preparation for hatch opening.
At 10:58 a.m. EDT, the Dragon spacecraft hatch was opened. This was quickly after the station team opened the hatch between the spaceport station and the pressurized mating adapter.