[Update] Crew-6 Arrives At Space Station Aboard SpaceX Dragon Endeavor Following Brief Delay Over Faulty Hook Sensor
Dragon Endeavor Spacecraft docked with the ISS's Harmony module at 0640 UTC on Friday, while the two spacecraft were flying off the coast of Somalia at an altitude of 261 miles. This happened an hour later than planned, as . SpaceX ground teams had to send a software override that fixed an the issue with a faulty sensor of one of the 12 hooks that helps the spacecraft connect to the ISS.
That same faulty hook sensor also briefly stalled Endeavour's attempt to open its nose cone in Earth orbit after it launched on Thursday (March 2). The spacecraft switched over to a backup system.
"After a brief scenic detour, welcome to the International Space Station!" SpaceX's David Hwang told the Crew-6 astronauts from mission control just after docking occurred.
"We're happy to be here," Crew-6 commander Stephen Bowen responded.
The Crew-6 quartet floated aboard the ISS after hatches between the two spacecraft were opened early morning Friday. They're welcomed by the Crew-5 astronauts and the trio -- NASA's Frank Rubio and cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin -- who arrived in September aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Roscosmos, launched an uncrewed replacement spacecraft last month to bring back the trio to Earth, after their Soyuz sprang a coolant leak in mid-December, rendering it unfit to carry the them home.
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SpaceX's Dragon Endeavor lifted off atop Falcon 9 rocket from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 0534 UTC on Thursday. Aboard the spacecraft are NASA astronauts Warren "Woody" Hoburg and Stephen Bowen; Russian space agency Roscosmos' Andrey Fedyaev, and the first United Arab Emirates astronaut to perform a long-duration mission, Sultan Al-Neyadi. This is the company's ninth crewed flight to date, and the fourth for Endeavor.
Falcon 9's first stage separated at about two minutes and 40 seconds after liftoff, and began coming back down to Earth. The booster performed a series of engine burns, then landed on SpaceX's droneship Just Read the Instructions 9.5 minutes after launch.
Flacon 9's upper stage, meanwhile, continued powering Endeavor into orbit, until a little more than 12 minutes after launch when the spacecraft separated from the upper stage and began flying freely on its way to the International Space Station, ISS.
"Just want to say, as a rookie flyer, that was one heck of ride. Thank you!" Hoburg told the SpaceX launch team shortly after spacecraft separation; adding that Crew Dragon Endeavor is "an absolute miracle of engineering, and I just feel so lucky that I get to fly on this amazing machine." The NASA astronaut along with Al-Neyadi and Fedyaev, are first-time space travelers.
Fedyaev is traveling under NASA's crew swap agreement with the Russian space agency Roscosmos, while UAE's Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center secured Al-Neyadi's seat in a deal with Houston-based company Axiom Space.
Endeavor is scheduled to arrive at the ISS at 0617 UTC on Friday (March 3) and the Crew-6 quartet will have a brief overlap with the members of Crew-5 who will be departing the station in about six days.
Crew-6 members will remain aboard the space station for roughly six months, and then the Crew-7 mission will launch to replace them. Thursday's launch is SpaceX's sixth operational mission for NASA's Commercial Crew program.
WATCH SpaceX launch of Dragon Endeavor atop Falcon 9 rocket