In Short: SpaceX crew Dragon docks with Int’l Space Station

AFP :

An international team of four astronauts aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule docked Saturday with the orbiting International Space Station (ISS).

“Docking confirmed!”, SpaceX posted on social media, along with a video showing the spacecraft making contact with the ISS at 2:27 am Eastern Time (0627, far above the southeast Pacific Ocean.

American astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan’s Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov are joining the ISS on a six-month mission.

They lifted off Friday morning from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, their capsule mounted on a Falcon 9 rocket.

It is the 11th crew rotation mission to the ISS under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, created to succeed the Space Shuttle era by partnering with private industry.

“We have cold drinks, hot food, and us waiting — see you soon,” the ISS crew told the new arrivals shortly after contact, according to the posted video.