Elon Musk-owned SpaceX’s Dragon capsule successfully carried four astronauts, from the United States, France and Russia, on Saturday, a day after launching them from Cape Canaveral. With this, the International Space Station (ISS) has returned to full strength as the four new astronauts replace colleagues who bailed early because of health concerns, the Associated Press reported.
Musk shared the video from his X handle confirming the docking of the Dragon capsule with the ISS. “Dragon is docked with @Space_Station,” Musk captioned the video.
Also read: ISRO-backed space lab to open at Mahoba village school
Watch video of the docked Dragon capsule:
The NASA last month had to evacuate the astronauts of Crew-11 stationed with the ISS for the first time in 65 years of human spaceflight after one of four astronauts launched by SpaceX last summer was reported to be unwell. Officials described it as a serious health issue which prompted their hasty return. That left only three crew members to keep the place running – one American and two Russians – prompting NASA to pause spacewalks and trim research.
Who are the four new astronauts?
The four new astronauts who arrived at the ISS on the SpaceX’s Dragon capsule are NASA’s Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, France’s Sophie Adenot and Russia’s Andrei Fedyaev.
Meir is a marine biologist and Fedyaev is a former military pilot and the two have spent time in the space before. During her first station visit in 2019, Meir took part in the first all-female spacewalk.
Adenot is a military helicopter pilot and is only the second French woman to fly to space while Hathaway is a captain in the US Navy.
NASA’s Crew-12 arrived at the orbiting laboratory after a journey of about 34 hours and will be one of the last crews to live aboard the space station which is the size of a football field. NASA has not given details about the health issue that prompted the previous mission to be cut short.
(With inputs from AP)