NASA's SpaceX Crew-5 Mission Arrives At The Space Station Aboard Dragon Endurance Spacecraft

The Crew-5 mission launched Wednesday(Oct. 5, at 1600 UTC)  in SpaceX's Dragon Endurance spacecraft atop Falcon 9 rocket from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Aboard the capsule were astronauts Nicole Mann as mission commander, Josh Cassada, pilot, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina, who will serve as mission specialists for their science expedition in microgravity aboard the space station.

During the flight, SpaceX monitored a series of automatic spacecraft maneuvers from its mission control center in Hawthorne, California, and NASA teams monitored space station operations throughout the flight from the Mission Control Center at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Dragon Endurance made contact with the International Space Station ISS, Thursday (Oct. 6, at 2101 UTC), wrapping up its docking operations about 10 minutes later. And nearly two hours later, the Crew-5 astronauts floated from Endurance into the orbital Station, beginning a five-month stay on the station.

Mann, Cassada, Wakata, and Kikina were welcomed to the space station by Expedition 68 crew of NASA astronauts Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, Frank Rubio, and Jessica Watkins, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin.

Crew-5 will spend several months aboard the space station conducting new scientific research in areas, such as cardiovascular health, bioprinting, and fluid behavior in microgravity to prepare for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and to benefit life on Earth.

This is the first spaceflight for Mann, Cassada, and Kikina, and the fifth for Wakata. This is the sixth SpaceX flight with NASA astronauts -- including the Demo-2 test flight in 2020 to the space station – as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.

The number of crew aboard the space station will be 11 people until Crew-4 astronauts Hines Lindgren, Watkins, and Cristoforetti return to Earth a few days later.

"The International Space Station continues to serve a critical role in helping NASA and our partners understand and maximize the unique attributes of the microgravity environment,” Kathryn Lueders, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate in Washington said on Wednesday. “I am grateful to the many people who worked to ensure a safe Crew-5 launch despite the recent hurricane so the crew can fulfill their mission to the orbiting laboratory.”

WATCH NASA's Space Crew-5 mission arrive at the space station