Space Stations

The Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft approaching the International Space Station (Image NASA TV)

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A few hours ago, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft docked to the International Space Station’s Harmony module completing the first part of its Crew-3 or SpaceX Crew-3 mission that began yesterday with its launch. After checking that the pressure is correctly balanced, the hatch will be opened to allow Raja Chari, Thomas Mashburn, Matthias Maurer, and Kayla Barron to enter the Station. The Endurance reached the Station about 40 minutes earlier than the original schedule.

The launch of the Shenzhou 13 mission (Photo courtesy Xinhua)

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A confirmation has arrived that the three Chinese taikonauts of the Shenzhou 13 mission have reached the Chinese space station’s Tianhe core module with an automated docking maneuver. They blasted off about six and a half hours earlier on a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. They’re the second crew of the Chinese space station and will remain there for about six months, twice the length of the Shenzhou 12 mission.

The Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft approaching the International Space Station (Image NASA TV)

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A few hours ago the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and after a little more than three hours reached the International Space Station with three new crew members on board. The ultra-fast route was used which halves the journey duration. The docking with the Station’s Rassvet module was about 10 minutes late because the Kurs automatic system had some problems and cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov had to manually pilot the Soyuz MS-19.