On Saturday morning, the Crew Dragon, with a crew of four, docked at the International Space Station. An unusual and probably stressful event took place during the flight that lasted almost a day.
Ship Crew Dragon Endeavour took off yesterday at 11:49 Polish time from Cape Canaveral, Florida. On board the ship were astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur (NASA), Akihiko Hoshide (JAXA) and Thoms Pesquet (ESA). The start was absolutely smooth. By the way SpaceX confirmed that their ships and rockets are in fact reusable for manned missions as well. Both Endeavor and the first rocket segment Falcon 9 used to carry out yesterday’s mission were once in outer space.
Unexpected meeting on the way to station
On the way to the orbital laboratory, around 19:30 Polish time to the ship Crew Dragon an unidentified object approached. At first, the object was identified as an immediate danger to both the crew and the ship. Ultimately, however, the object safely passed within 45 km of the ship.
On the scale of the Crew Dragon’s size, a distance of 45 km seems very large and safe, but in orbit, at orbital speeds, it is definitely a short distance. It is enough to realize at this point that the International Space Station moves at a speed of over 7 km / s to stay in orbit. At these speeds, 45 km is the distance a ship travels in just a few seconds.
It got hot for a moment
After receiving information about the object on a collision course with the ship, NASA instructed astronauts aboard the Dragon to put on space suits and fasten themselves to their seats. Back then, there was no more time left to plan or execute any effective maneuver on the ship.
The order to put on the suits reached the crew shortly after… the astronauts got rid of them in preparation for sleep. Moments later, the object safely flew past the ship. The ship moored to the International Space Station on Saturday at 11:08 Polish time.
What was the object that took the astronauts under pressure? It is not known yet, but the situation is being intensively analyzed by several teams of engineers.
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