SpaceX’s Crew Dragon astronauts have safely boarded the International Space Station (ISS) about 28 hours after blasting off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The astronauts — NASA’s Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker, together Soichi Noguchi of Japan’s JAXA space agency — entered through the hatch at 10:10 p.m. PT on Monday, November 16.
The newly arrived Crew-1 astronauts join NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, on board the space station as part of Expedition 64.
NASA livestreamed the entire event as both the spacecraft and the station orbited Earth at an altitude of 262 miles and a speed of 17,500 mph.
Shortly after docking at about 8 p.m. PT, Crew Dragon commander Michael Hopkins congratulated SpaceX and NASA for enabling “a new era of operational flights for the International Space Station from the Florida coast,” with astronaut launches and landings now possible within U.S. territory for the first time since the end of the space shuttle program in 2011.
This is only the second time the Crew Dragon has transported astronauts to the space station following a successful test flight over the summer with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken. You can enjoy that historic mission again with this photo gallery.
The Crew-1 astronauts will stay aboard the space station for the next six months, carrying out a range of experiments in microgravity conditions while at the same time enjoying the view.
Check out this collection of videos made by astronauts themselves to learn more about how they work, rest, and play while staying aboard the station.
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