Skip to main content

Watch SpaceX’s Crew-4 astronauts arrive at new home in space

SpaceX’s Crew-4 astronauts have safely boarded the International Space Station (ISS) after a 16-hour ride to the orbiting laboratory — the fastest Crew Dragon trip to the facility yet.

NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, and Jessica Watkins, together with Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency, traveled to the ISS aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft, docking with the facility 260 miles above Earth at just after 7:35 p.m. ET (4:35 p.m. PT) on Wednesday, April 27.

NASA livestreamed the autonomous docking process, and also the moment when the new crewmembers entered the ISS through the connecting hatch. Waiting to greet them was the current seven-person ISS crew from the U.S., Germany, and Russia.

Just this morning, the four #Crew4 astronauts were launching from @NASAKennedy. Now they're being greeted by the crew of the @Space_Station. Watch as they enter their new digs. pic.twitter.com/nifrIHBo5f

— NASA (@NASA) April 28, 2022

Several hours later, the current crew officially welcomed the new arrivals:

Wilkommen, bienvenue, welcome… The population on the International @Space_Station just grew by four! Watch live as the team on orbit welcomes the newly arrived @SpaceX #Crew4 astronauts, bringing the number of humans now orbiting Earth to 11. https://t.co/V9tEkwjiWw

— NASA (@NASA) April 28, 2022

The Crew-4 mission got underway at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in the early hours of Wednesday, with a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket powering the astronauts into orbit in a spectacular night launch. The mission marked the fourth flight for the first-stage booster, and the first use of this particular Crew Dragon spacecraft, named “Freedom” by the crew.

With 11 people now aboard the space station, the facility will feel more crowded than usual. However, some space will open up soon when the four Crew-3 astronauts return to Earth in the coming days following a six-month stint in space.

The Crew-4 mission is SpaceX’s fifth flight to the ISS involving professional astronauts and comes nearly two years after the first one that saw Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken ride a Crew Dragon to the station in a test mission. Other crewed flights using SpaceX’s capsule include NASA’s first private astronaut mission to the ISS earlier this month, and last year’s orbital space trip involving four private citizens.

The Crew-4 astronauts will spend the next six months living aboard the orbiting outpost, performing science experiments, conducting spacewalks, and gazing out of the window at the incredible views of Earth.

Editors' Recommendations

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
NASA addresses the crack in the hatch of the Crew-8 spacecraft
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission launches from Kennedy Space Center at 10:53 p.m. EST on Sunday, March 3, 2024.

NASA and SpaceX have sent off the latest batch of astronauts to visit the International Space Station, with the launch of the Crew-8 mission late last night. The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft launched from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida just before 11 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 3, but there was a risk during that the launch might have been cancelled due to a crack discovered in the hatch seal of the spacecraft around 30 minutes before liftoff.

This morning, NASA shared further details about the crack and why they were confident in letting the launch go ahead.

Read more
Crew-8 launches with small crack in capsule, but SpaceX says it’s safe
SpaceX Crew-8 launches to the space station in March 2024.

SpaceX successfully launched its Crew-8 members to the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday night.

The Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA astronauts Michael Barratt, Matthew Dominick, and Jeanette Epps, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, blasted away from a Cape Canaveral launchpad in Florida just before 11 p.m. ET.

Read more
SpaceX’s Crew-8 head to launchpad for ride to space
SpaceX's Crew-8 head to the launchpad.

SpaceX's Crew-8 head to the launchpad on Sunday. NASA

[UPDATE: Crew-8 have launched and are on their way to the space station.]

Read more