And four which make us eleven.
The family photo taken at each welcome ceremony was more complicated than usual this early Saturday afternoon, when Thomas Pesquet and his three teammates, who left the day before our good old Earth, joined the Station. international space.
After a crowded flight of just under 24 hours, the Crew Dragon capsule docked carefree at the space base shortly after 11 a.m., and the astronauts passed through the airlock nearly three hours later.
"I have never seen so many people, or vehicles moored to the ISS," said the French astronaut, smiling, after a warm speech from the director of the European space agency.
“It's amazing to be back on the ISS.
She has changed a lot since the last time I came.
[…] We are delighted to see our friends again.
It's true that being at 11 is a lot of people, ”he added, about the new team and the one present on site, from four nationalities.
He also wanted to have, in French, a little note for his "family and friends who traveled to Cape Canaveral", for the launch of the rocket on Friday.
Read alsoReive the maneuver live
This is the third time that private company SpaceX, which ended Russia's monopoly on flights to the station, has brought humans to the ISS.
The station should only remain as populated for a few days, time for Crew_1 to return to Earth?
"Hard Capture over, welcome to Crew-2"
The Endeavor spacecraft had begun its docking maneuvers at 09:08 GMT, 424 kilometers above the Indian Ocean, a process completed about ten minutes later, with a mechanism locking by a series of 12 latches the docking between. the ISS and the spacecraft, according to images broadcast live by NASA television. "Hard Capture over, welcome to Crew-2," said US astronaut Shannon Walker, current ISS commander. "Thank you Shannon, we are happy to be here, we will see you all in a few minutes," replied Endeavor commander, US astronaut Shane Kimbrough.
"Endeavor arriving!"
Welcome to the @Space_Station, Crew-2!
Their arrival means there are now 11 humans aboard our orbiting laboratory, a number not seen since the space shuttle era.
Hugs abound.
pic.twitter.com/uSwW3JFl6K
- NASA (@NASA) April 24, 2021
French Thomas Pesquet for the European Space Agency (ESA), Americans Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur and Japanese Akihiko Hoshide had taken off from Kennedy Space Center some 23 hours earlier on Friday at dawn.
This performance is another success for the private company SpaceX, which has imposed itself on NASA for space transport, at a time when Boeing's Starliner capsule is accumulating delays in its test flights.
With the success in May 2020 of its first manned test flight, SpaceX broke the Russian monopoly on flights to the ISS.
He gave Americans back the ability to accomplish this feat, after the “Shuttle” space shuttle program ended in 2011.
New era
This is the first time that a spacecraft has been reused for manned flight and the thruster has already been used on an unmanned test mission.
Reducing costs by recycling equipment is one of the objectives of NASA's partnerships with the private sector.
Two Crew Dragon spacecraft are now stationed side-by-side at the ISS, illustrating how SpaceX has become the primary transportation provider for the US space agency. "I think we are on the cusp of a new era of space exploration," billionaire Elon Musk, who plans to bring humans to the moon one day, said at a post-launch press conference. and Mars. With the arrival of four astronauts, the International Space Station will be unusually populated, with eleven occupants. The four newcomers will meet the Crew-1 team for a few days before the latter returns from its mission.
The mission is also a milestone for Europe, which named it "Alpha" after the Alpha Centauri star system, the closest star system to our solar system. "This is really the golden age for us in terms of operating the International Space Station," Frank De Winne, head of the ISS program at the European Space Agency (ESA), told AFP. German Matthias Maurer will be the next European to be part of a SpaceX mission this fall, followed by Italian Samantha Cristoforetti next spring.
During its six-month mission, the team will be responsible for carrying out around 100 scientific experiments. They will focus on what are called "tissue chips" - small models of human organs made up of different types of cells and used to study the aging of the immune system, kidney function and muscle loss, among other things. The crew will also take 1.5 million images of Earth, documenting phenomena such as artificial lighting at night, algal blooms and the bursting of Antarctic ice shelves. Another important part of the mission was to upgrade the station's solar power system by installing new compact panels that roll out like a huge yoga mat.
