The four members of SpaceX Crew-6 safely boarded the International Space Station (ISS) after a trip that lasted about 27 hours.
NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg, United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12:34 a.m. ET on Thursday and reached the orbital outpost about 24 hours ago.
A minor software glitch on the Crew Dragon Endeavor spacecraft briefly delayed the landing procedure, which finally took place at 1:40 a.m. ET on Friday morning.
After final preparations, at about 3:40 am ET, the Crew-6 members entered the space station, where they were met by the seven-person team already aboard the facility.
NASA shared a short video showing the new arrivals entering the station as it orbits Earth at an altitude of about 260 miles.
Bowen, Hoburg, Al Neyadi, and Fedyaey will spend the next six months living and working aboard the ISS, working on several science experiments in microgravity conditions while performing other tasks such as spacewalks for station maintenance and upgrades.
This is the first space mission for all of the crew except Bowen, who is currently on his fourth trip into orbit. Al Neyadi is the second Emirati astronaut to reach orbit and the first to embark on a long-duration mission.
The arrival of Crew-6 made the station more crowded than usual, as there were eleven crew members on board. That won’t last long, however, as the four members of Crew-5 are scheduled to leave the station in about five days after a six-month stay.
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