A little while ago, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft concluded its Crew-7, or SpaceX Crew-7, mission for NASA by landing without problems. On board were astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli, Andreas Mogensen, and Satoshi Furukawa and cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, who had reached the International Space Station on August 27, 2023, and were part of Expedition 69/70. The four of them finished the seventh regular crewed mission of SpaceX in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Pensacola, Florida. The Crew Dragon departed the Station a bit more than 18 hours earlier.
Shortly after the splashdown, SpaceX’s ship went to recover the Endurance and its crew to transport them to the coast. The astronauts also received their first medical checkup aboard the ship.
During the first part of Expedition 70, there were several spacecraft arrivals and departures. On November 11, 2023, a Dragon cargo spacecraft arrived on the CRS-29 mission and then departed the Station on December 21 to return to Earth. On November 29, the Russian cargo spacecraft Progress MS-23 departed the Station to disintegrate upon re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. The Russian space cargo Progress MS-25 arrived on December 3. On December 22, the American Cygnus space freighter “S.S. Laurel Clark” left the Station to disintegrate upon re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. On January 20, 2024, the Crew Dragon Freedom spacecraft reached the Station on the Ax-3 mission and then departed on February 7. On February 1, the American Cygnus cargo spacecraft “S.S. Patricia “Patty” Hilliard Robertson” reached the Station on its NG-20 mission. On February 13, the Russian cargo spacecraft Progress MS-24 departed the Station to disintegrate upon re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. On February 17, The Russian cargo spacecraft Progress MS-26 arrived. On March 5, the Crew Dragon Endeavor spacecraft reached the Station on the Crew-8 mission.
During this time, two spacewalks were conducted, and one involved a member of the Crew-7 mission. On October 25, Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub spent 7 hours and 41 minutes conducting installation and inspection operations outside the Russian Nauka module. On November 1, Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara spent 6 hours and 42 minutes conducting various maintenance tasks on the Station’s solar panels.
The Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft completed its third space mission and will be checked up like the others after each return to Earth. SpaceX continues to perform missions as part of its contract with NASA, which ensures the USA a means of transport independent from other nations, and private missions.
