"Crew Dragon" flight
Russian and US-American successfully launched
After a journey lasting more than a day, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov have arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) as planned. The capsule docked at the human outpost around 400 kilometers above the Earth on Sunday afternoon.
There, the two were greeted by the nine members already on board the ISS, as footage from the US space agency NASA showed. Their arrival was celebrated with the traditional ringing of a bell and a welcome ceremony.
The so-called Crew-9 was launched from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida early on Saturday afternoon on board a "Crew Dragon" from tech billionaire Elon Musk's private space company SpaceX. There were two fewer team members on board than originally planned.
Astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson had to give up their seats in order to bring astronauts Suni Williams and Barry Wilmore, who were stranded on the ISS, back to Earth. Williams and Wilmore were only supposed to spend around a week on board the ISS.
"Starliner" flew back to Earth without a crew
However, due to technical problems with the "Starliner" spacecraft in which they had flown to the ISS in June, NASA then decided to bring the spacecraft back to Earth empty. Williams and Wilmore, together with Hague and Gorbunov, are now due to return to Earth in February.
Until then, the crew on board the ISS will carry out scientific experiments over several months as part of their mission. These will include experiments on the physics of supernova explosions, the behavior of cells and blood platelets during a long-term space flight and the growth conditions of plants, which should also provide important insights for life on Earth.
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