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Four astronauts transported by SpaceX’s Dragon capsule entered the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday, successfully completing the first voyage of NASA’s new space transport vehicle after nine years of dependence on Russia.
The first phase of docking with the ISS, called “soft capture”, ended Tuesday at 04H01 GMT, according to live images broadcast by NASA on the Internet. The second phase, or “hard catch”, took place a few minutes later.
American astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi floated in zero gravity through the hatch inside the ISS, where they were greeted with shouts and hugs from the three crew members of the station.
“Thank you so much for letting me say hello to all of you,” NASA manned space flight program director Kathy Lauders told the astronauts in a video message. “I just want to tell you how proud we are of you,” he added.
The capsule, called “Resilience”, was launched by a Falcon 9 rocket from the private company SpaceX, NASA’s new means of space transport after nine years of dependence on Russia.
“It’s a big day for the United States and Japan,” NASA chief Jim Bridenstine said at a news conference.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket took off without error and at the scheduled time from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida (southeast). “It was an incredible launch,” said Captain Hopkins, once in orbit.
Less than three minutes after take-off, at an altitude of 90 km and while the rocket was traveling at 7,000 km / h, the first level of the spacecraft detached without incident to return to Earth, as it will be reused in a mission scheduled for 2021 which will lead four astronauts to the ISS.
Twelve minutes after take-off, at an altitude of 200 km and a speed of 27,000 km / h, the Dragon capsule detached from the second stage.
SpaceX confirmed that the capsule was in the correct orbit to reach the ISS just over 27 hours after takeoff.
The crew joined two Russians and one American on the ISS, where they will remain for six months.
This “operational” flight continues the successful demonstration mission carried out from May to August, in which two American astronauts were flown to the ISS and then safely brought to Earth by SpaceX.
SpaceX plans two more manned flights in 2021 for NASA and four missions to refuel the station over the next 15 months.
A purely private trip is also planned for the end of 2021, through the partner Axiom Space. NASA has hinted that American actor Tom Cruise could travel to the ISS, which has not been confirmed.
“NASA was a complete disaster when we took office. Now it is once again the ‘hottest’ and most advanced space center in the world, by far!” Outgoing US President Donald Trump tweeted. , appropriating the success of a plan launched under the mandate of his two predecessors.
Joe Biden, who will replace Trump in January, also praised NASA and SpaceX, but from another angle. “It is proof of the power of science and of what we can achieve by combining innovation, ingenuity and determination,” tweeted the president-elect.
The mission encountered a problem with the cabin temperature control system, but it was quickly fixed. “It was just a small initial problem,” confirmed Kathy Lueders.
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