The docking to the International Space Station of the Endurance ship and the departure of the astronauts will not take place until Sunday
The Crew-7 mission of the POT and SpaceX took off successfully early this Saturday from the Kennedy Space Center, in Cape Canaveral (Florida, USA), aboard the Endurance spacecraft and heading the International Space Station (ISS), where the crew will carry out various experiments and take over from Crew-6.
Liftoff took place, as scheduled, at 3:27 local time this Saturday (7:27 GMT) from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. After separation, the first stage of the Falcon 9 landed at Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, as seen in a live broadcast.
As detailed by NASA specialists, the docking to the ISS of the Endurance ship and the departure of the astronauts will not take place until Sunday.
The Crew-7 mission, the seventh manned flight to the ISS Conducted by NASA and SpaceX, it is commanded by astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, selected by NASA in 2017, and Andreas Mogensen, from the European Space Agency (ESA). In addition, astronauts Satoshi Furukawa, from the Japanese agency JAXA, and Konstantin Borisov, from the Russian Roscosmos, are traveling on the ship.
During their stay in the orbital laboratory, the crew will carry out demonstrations of science and technology to prepare for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit and benefit humanity on Earth, according to SpaceX on its website.
Crew-7 is developed within the framework of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP), through which the US agency commissions private aerospace firms such as SpaceX to transport crew and cargo to the ISS, in addition to other missions in low Earth orbit.
The future of Crew-6
The return to earth of the Crew-6 crew will take place about five days laterdepending on weather conditions, so NASA cannot yet set an exact date.
Five days after Crew-7’s arrival, Crew-6 will undock, “enough time for a good transfer between the two crews and to get the Crew-7 guys ready for ‘rock’n’roll,'” Joel Montalbano, NASA’s ISS program manager, said recently in a conference call. NASA Crew-6 will leave the EEI after completing a six month stay and conducted important scientific research.
In a connection from the ISS last Tuesday, NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev answered many of the questions posed by the crews in a relaxed and humorous way. journalists.
The three practiced spacewalksspace station maintenance, scientific investigations and the private Axiom mission’s visit to the ISS last May were some of the highlights of the Crew-6 mission, they noted.