Friday’s takeoff of the Crew Dragon “Endeavour” capsule went well, and its four occupants are now on board. the International Space Station. Around the tourists, the Crew 3 crew is busy before returning to Earth end of April… Like the Chinese crew of the SSC in a few days.
Manned space is still far from mass sport.
The party in the village
A little relief and lots of smiles. The four astronauts of the Crew Dragon capsule chartered by the private operator Axiom Space arrived on the International Space Station this Saturday at 2:29 p.m., after a perfectly executed takeoff and a flight of almost a day to catch up with the great orbital laboratory. The only moment of tension, a 45-minute wait before being able to moor, the fault of a faulty video link to the ISS.
A small difficulty quickly put aside, since a few hours later, Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria was able to open the hatch, and accompany the three space tourists to the ISS for a careful welcome of the whole crew. After this weekend of adaptation, the astronauts will start their scientific program this week, just to bring back “only” selfies and photographs of the Earth from their orbital adventure.
Activity over the next few days
There are, for about ten days (until April 18 a priori), eleven astronauts on board the ISS: to the crew of Axiom-1 must be added three NASA astronauts, three Russian cosmonauts (Roscosmos) and the German Matthias Maurer (ESA). This is not a first, but these periods are multiplying!
In the Station, the atmosphere will undoubtedly remain studious all week. On the Russian side, the occupants are preparing their next spacewalk on the sides of the Nauka module, while their colleagues opposite have only eleven days left before the arrival of their replacements, and the imposing scientific program must therefore be completed. which was dedicated to them. Only on the freighter side is the situation calm: the station is supplied for several months.
Don’t forget China…
There remain three astronauts who are more discreet than the others, and who are not on board the International Station, but in the Chinese orbital laboratory, the SSC! They will also probably be the next to return home: Wang Yaping, Ye Guangfu and Zhai Zhigang are in the process of completing the longest orbital flight to date for China, with almost six months on the clock (takeoff on 15 last October).
The date of their return has not been officially communicated for the moment, but it is expected around April 15, for a landing in the desert in Inner Mongolia. They will not have the leisure to welcome their replacements in orbit, but they will be able to speak to them on Earth, the crew of Shenzhou-14 probably not taking off before the beginning of June. It will also be necessary to follow the SSC carefully at the beginning of the summer, with the arrival of its second major laboratory module. Until then, other humans will be above our heads…
Source : NASA
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