SpaceX capsule with four astronauts successfully arrives at International Space Station

SpaceX’s newly launched capsule with four astronauts arrived at their new home, the International Space Station (ISS), by spring.

The Dragon capsule was towed this morning after a 27 – hour fully automated flight from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

When the dragon’s commander, Mike Hopkins, first made radio contact, “Oh, what a good sound to hear,” space station astronaut Kate Rubins called out. The linkup occurred at an altitude of 262 miles above Idaho.

This is the second space mission for SpaceX. But this is the first time Elon Musk’s company has hired a crew for a half – year station stay.

Earlier this year, two pilot test flights lasted two months.

Three Americans and a Japanese astronaut will remain in the orbit lab until another dragon arrives in April.

Gradually, Boeing, along with SpaceX, took astronauts to and from NASA.

Hopkins and crew – Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Sochi Noguchi of Japan – flew from Kazakhstan to the space station last month with two Russians and an American.

All four named their capsule Resilience to give hope and inspiration to a particularly difficult year around the world.

They aired a tour of their capsule yesterday showing touchscreen controls, storage areas, and a zero gravity indicator: a little plush baby yoda.

Source: NASA/ YouTube

Walker said it’s a little harder for them than the two astronauts on the test flight.

“We dance with each other to stay out of each other’s way,” she said.

NASA keeps guests to a minimum because of the coronavirus pandemic, and even Musk had to stay away after tweeting that he was “almost” infected.

SpaceX president Gwynn Shotwell has been put in charge of the launch launch. Although he was away on Sunday night’s activity, he assured reporters that he still had a big role to play.

As they prepared for the space station’s linkup, the Dragon crew displayed live window views of New Zealand and the bright blue, cloudy flat Pacific below 250 miles.

“Looks amazing,” Mission Control said in a radio broadcast from the SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California.

“It looks amazing from here,” Hopkins replied.