Crew docks at space station for 2-week commercial mission

An international crew of four in SpaceX's newest Crew Dragon capsule caught up with the International Space Station Thursday and moved in for a problem-free docking to wrap up an automated 28-hour rendezvous that began with blastoff Wednesday.

The capture mechanism in the nose of the Crew Dragon Grace, the fifth and final such spacecraft in SpaceX's fleet, engaged its counterpart in the space-facing port of the forward Harmony module at 6:31 a.m. EDT as the two spacecraft sailed 260 miles above the mid Atlantic Ocean.

With the initial "soft capture" confirmed, the capsule was pulled in and firmly locked in place, power and data umbilicals automatically connected and flight controllers began a series of leak checks to verify an airtight structural seal.

Hatches were finally opened at 8:14 a.m., and Crew Dragon commander Peggy Whitson and her crewmates — Shubhanshu Shukla of India; Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski, a European Space Agency astronaut from Poland; and Hungarian engineer Tibor Kapu — floated into the station to hugs and handshakes from the lab's seven long-duration crew members.

Whitson, a retired NASA astronaut, is the most experienced American space flier, logging 675 days in orbit during four previous missions.

On her fifth flight, she is leading the fourth privately-financed commercial space station visit chartered by Houston-based Axiom Space. The company charges up to $70 million or so per seat to carry non-NASA astronauts, professional researchers and others to the space station. Whitson also commanded the company's second space station flight.

Throughout their two-week Ax-4 mission, Whitson and her crewmates plan to carry out a full slate of science research and technology demonstrations, along with interactive educational events in the crew's home countries. They were trained for space station operations and will have full use of the U.S. segment of the orbital lab.

"Peggy, welcome back," station commander Takuya Onishi said when the combined 11-member crew gathered for an official welcoming ceremony. "It's a great honor and privilege to have such a legendary astronaut like you on board with us.

"And Tibor, Shux and Suave, congratulations on your first space flight. We've been waiting for you guys so long, and we are so happy to see your smiling faces. With your arrival, there are 11 astronauts from six countries and all of us are here in order to advance human space exploration and scientific research."

Whitson thanked Onishi, saying "you guys are exceptional hosts and hopefully, you'll think we're exceptional guests at the end of a couple of weeks! We're looking forward to getting a lot of work done with you guys."

All told, researchers from 31 countries will be helping evaluate data from the Ax-4 experiments and technology demonstrations. Whitson said before launch the mission "opens up access to countries that might not normally get access to space. So this is very exciting."

Before they reached the space station, the Ax-4 crew beamed down televised comments describing the flight and their expectations.

"Welcome, earthlings, from Grace," Whitson radioed. She revealed the name of the new Crew Dragon moments after reaching orbit Wednesday.

"We are in the newest Dragon capsule, and we are very happy with her," Whitson said. "She's got a little bit of a new-spacecraft smell, and we're loving her a bunch. It's so much fun to be up in space again, always fun to be in space, but it's really fun to be in space with three new astronauts."

Uznański-Wiśniewski said "it's an amazing feeling to be in orbit for the first time. When I unbuckled for the first time, I didn't feel 100 percent, but then everything settled and when I looked out the window, the view was just stunning."

Shukla, a test pilot in the Indian air force, said of the launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket, "wow, what a night it was."

"When the flight started, it was something, you get pushed back in the seat, it was an amazing flight. And then suddenly, nothing, everything silenced, and you were just floating ... it was an amazing feeling."

Tibor added the crew's thanks "to everyone around the world and every person on the team that made this beautiful day happen."

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