The flight operated by the private aerospace company of tycoon Elon Musk took 21 hours to reach its destination, after leaving Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
For three American NASA astronauts, Raja Chari, Kayla Barron and Tom Marshburn, and German European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Matthias Maurer, the moment they first sighted the space station, 30 kilometers away , it was exciting.
“Floating in space and shining like a diamond“, wrote the German astronaut Matthias Maurer. “We are all very excited“, he added, quoted by the Associated Press (AP) news agency.
The four are part of the Crew-3 mission and will replace the crew that returned to Earth on Monday, joining the American astronaut and the two Russians who remained aboard the EEI.
“I can’t tell you how happy I am to see these smiling faces“, said NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, after hugging the newcomers.
“Each of us, all seven of us, are friends, and we will become even more friends as time goes on“he stated.
Vande Hei and one of the two Russians on board are in the middle of a year-long mission that is due to end in March 2022.
What will happen
This is the third ISS-bound mission operated by the private company SpaceX for NASA.
It is also the third trip to space by American Tom Marshburn, who has traveled aboard a space shuttle in 2009 and a Soyuz rocket in 2012-2013.
The remaining astronauts take the trip for the first time.
The mission will feature several experiments, including the observation of the effects of diet on the immune system of astronauts, with the prolonged stay in space.
Crew-3 crew will also conduct spacewalks to proceed with the installation of new solar panels on the ISS.
Over the next six months, the space station will also host two tourist missions.
The first to arrive are expected to be Japanese passengers aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft later in the year. In February 2022, EEI is expected to receive passengers from the Ax-1 mission, organized by Axiom Space, in partnership with SpaceX.
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