again not without problems (photo)

Technology and science

March 03, 2023 at 14:40

After 25 hours of flight, two Americans arrived at the ISS, a representative of the United Arab Emirates and one astronaut from the Russian Federation, writes Algeria.

At Focus. Technology appeared its own Telegram channel. Subscribe to not miss the latest and exciting news from the world of science!

The Crew Dragon spacecraft with four new astronauts as a replacement crew for the ISS sent a Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX into space on Thursday, March 2. After 25 hours of flight, the spacecraft docked at the orbital station on Friday morning, March 3rd. The fact of successful docking was confirmed at the moment when the ISS flew over the Earth at an altitude of 420 km at a speed of 28,164 km/h.

The mission, called Crew-6, is NASA’s sixth astronaut mission since Elon Musk’s company made the first such flight on its spacecraft back in May 2020. On board the Crew Dragon were NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg, UAE astronaut Sultan Al-Neyadi and Russian Andrey Fedyaev.

As already wrote Focusinitially the departure of this crew to the ISS was scheduled for Monday, February 27, but due to problems with the rocket, and then worsening weather conditions, the launch date was postponed to Thursday, March 2.

But this flight was not without some difficulties. The docking of the spacecraft with the ISS took place at 8:20 am Kyiv time, but the crew was ready to cross the threshold of the station an hour earlier. Mission controllers on Earth stopped the spacecraft for some time due to identified problems with one of the clamps with which the spacecraft “clings” to the ISS. When the ground crew restarted the ship’s software, the problem was fixed and the Crew Dragon successfully docked. According to representatives of SpaceX, they did not expect that the ship could have such problems in space.

The four new astronauts on the ISS will be here for about half a year and will conduct more than 200 important experiments. Some of this research will help in the implementation of manned flights to the moon and other planets. Of course, the new crew members will keep the International Space Station running.

Among all four astronauts, 59-year-old Stephen Bowen is the most experienced, having been in space three times already and spent a total of 40 days there. Also in his track record is 7 spacewalks. The other three traveled off our planet for the first time.

It is important to note that Russian Andrey Fedyaev is already the second astronaut from the Russian Federation to fly into space aboard an American spacecraft thanks to a new agreement between NASA and Roscosmos signed last July. Despite the deterioration of relations between the United States and Russia due to the latter’s invasion of Ukraine, cooperation between countries on the ISS continues.

By the way, today there are four representatives of the Russian Federation at the orbital station at once, including Fedyaev. The fact is that Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitry Petelin remained at the station for another six months. They and American Frank Rubio were unable to fly home due to an accident on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. But, as already written Focus“Roskosmos” sent a new spacecraft, but it will be able to return this trinity to Earth only in September.

Another Russian woman, Anna Kikina, along with the Americans Josh Kassada and Nicole Mann, as well as the Japanese Koichi Wakata, will return to Earth in about five days. The most interesting thing is that the representative of the Russian Federation will fly on the ship of the American company SpaceX. Actually, this quartet will replace the crew that arrived on Friday, March 3, in orbit.

Also Focus wrote that astronaut Josh Kassada took an amazing picture of the aurora from space.