The four astronauts of the Crew-6 crew entered the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday March 3 after successfully docking their SpaceX Dragon capsule, according to a NASA broadcast.
The space capsule arrived at the orbital station at 6:40 a.m. (Paris time) on Friday, the US space agency said in a statement.
American astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg, Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev and Emirati astronaut Sultan al-Neyadi entered the station about two hours later.
The Dragon capsule docked at the International Space Station on March 3, 2023. - / AFP
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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the space capsule lifted off to the station Thursday, March 2, with the launch canceled minutes before liftoff earlier in the week.
The crew will spend six months aboard the ISS, where they will perform more than 200 science and technology experiments, according to SpaceX.
Liftoff of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket with the Dragon spacecraft for the Crew-6 mission, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, United States, March 2, 2023. CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP
This mission is the first in space for Neyadi, Hoburg and Fedyaev.
At 41, Sultan al-Neyadi is the fourth astronaut from an Arab country and the second Emirati to travel in space.
Andrey Fedyaev is the second Russian cosmonaut to fly on a SpaceX rocket to the ISS, with NASA astronauts regularly traveling to the ISS aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft as part of an exchange program maintained, despite tensions between Washington and Moscow.
Space remained a rare venue for Russian-American cooperation as the Russian offensive in Ukraine entered its second year.