SpaceX’s astronaut capsule is already docking with the space station

A crew of astronauts aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule docked at the International Space Station, wrapping up a day trip to meet with the orbiting lab after its launch from Florida early Thursday.

The capsule made first contact with the space station at 1:40 a.m. ET on Friday and began opening the hatches at 3:45 a.m. EST.

Programming

The spacecraft was scheduled to dock with the ISS around 1:15 a.m. ET, but it was delayed because ground crews worked to fix an issue with a sensor in the pod’s docking hardwarewhich is used to hook the vehicle into its port.

Engineers on the ground faced the same problem in the early hours of Thursday morning, just after the Crew Dragon capsule reached orbit.

A faulty sensor had caused problems when trying to lift the spacecraft’s nose cone, which protects the docking hardware during launch and is intended to open after reaching space. However, the ground crews were able to use a backup system to fix the problem.

capsule position

The capsule was forced to hold its position on Friday morning, since it was located about 20 meters (70 feet) from the space stationl, and the engineers worked in real time to find a solution.

These astronauts are expected to spend up to six months in space, conducting scientific experiments and performing routine maintenance on the two-decades-old space station.

During the next few days, Crew-6 astronauts will work on transition tasks for the four Crew-5 team members, who have been on the space station since October 2022.