The takeoff of the capsule Crew Dragon Endeavor took place yesterday morning. After a day’s drive and a tricky approach due to the docking mechanism, the vehicle docked at the international space station. An expected rotation of the crew, for a busy mission of six months.
The crew of Crew-5 will return to Earth in a few days.
The second was the right one
” After so many years of training, it really is a strange feeling to be here. “, explained this morning the American Warren Hoburg during the traditional conference after the arrival of the Crew-6 mission on the International Space Station. In the end, everything went well for the capsule and its crew, despite a hectic week and a flight with some technical questions. Indeed, takeoff was scheduled for Monday, February 27, but the countdown was stopped two minutes before the launch of the Falcon 9 rocket, following a problem with the engine ignition system. The four crew members therefore waited until Wednesday evening (Florida time) to return to their capsule in a relaxed atmosphere. Liftoff did take place on Thursday at 6:34 a.m. (Paris) and this time everything went well on the way to orbit.
Pull the spool…
En route for a day’s journey to the International Space Station, the Crew Dragon Endeavor capsule (which is flying for the fourth time) had some minor problems with the sensors in its docking port locking system, retractable hooks. First with one of the sensors of the 5 hooks which held the aerodynamic nose of Crew Dragon, then this morning during the final approach to the ISS with a sensor of one of the 12 hooks of the docking system. The latter created a blocking situation, but SpaceX was able, in a few handfuls of minutes, to send a small software patch to its capsule to circumvent the problem: the hook was functional! Half an hour later, Crew Dragon docked uneventfully at the front of the International Space Station.
Crew Rotation
The Crew-6 crew is made up of American veteran Stephen Bowen (3 shuttle flights) who commanded the capsule, and three “rookies”, astronauts who are in orbit for the first time. Crew Dragon’s pilot is American Warren Hoburg; there is also a Russian passenger, Andrey Fedyaev, who makes the trip in the American vehicle as part of the exchanges between NASA and Roscosmos, and the Emirati (or Emirati) Sultan Al-Neydadi, who will be the first astronaut from the United Arab Emirates to spend six months in space, thanks to an agreement between his agency and Axiom Space.
As you might expect, Crew-6 is there to replace Crew-5 and its four crew members (Nicole Mann, Josh Cassada, Koichi Wakata and Anna Kikina). The latter are training their successors in a week of transition, before undocking and returning to Earth scheduled for March 9, but which will depend on the weather for their landing. The three remaining crew members are those who arrived with the Soyuz capsule (MS-22, replaced in February by MS-23), the American Frank Rubio and his two Russian colleagues Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitri Petelin. The latter are halfway through their modified flight in July, which will ultimately last a year or so.
Source : Nasa
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