Recycled SpaceX Crew Dragon brings crew to ISS

Recycled SpaceX Crew Dragon brings crew to ISS

WASHINGTON: A recycled SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule with four astronauts docked with the International Space Station early yesterday, the third time Elon Musk's company has safely delivered humans to the orbital outpost. The spacecraft named Endeavour, piloting itself autonomously, began docking at 5:08 am Eastern time (0908 GMT) above the south Indian Ocean. The process was completed around 10 minutes later. "Hard capture complete, welcome Crew-2,“ said US astronaut Shannon Walker, current commander of the ISS. "Thanks Shannon, we're glad to be here,“ replied Endeavour's commander, US astronaut Shane Kimbrough. The crew will begin boarding after 7:15 am (1115 GMT) once the hatches are opened.

The Crew-2 mission, which includes the first European, Thomas Pesquet of France, blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida before dawn on Friday, around 23 hours earlier. Endeavor first flew to the ISS on the Demo-2 mission in May 2020, ending almost a decade of US reliance on Russia for rides to the ISS following the end of the Space Shuttle era. It was the first time a capsule has been reused for crewed spaceflight and the mission also featured a reused rocket, accomplishing key cost-saving goals of NASA's partnerships with private industry. Two