In weightlessness. The four astronauts of the Crew-6 crew entered the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday. The SpaceX Dragon Endeavor space capsule arrived at the orbital station at 7:40 a.m. French time, NASA said in a statement.
American astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg, Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev and Emirati astronaut Sultan al-Neyadi entered the station about two hours later. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the space capsule had lifted off to the station on Thursday, with the launch canceled minutes before liftoff earlier in the week.
More than 200 experiments in six months
The crew will spend six months aboard the ISS, where they will perform more than 200 science and technology experiments according to SpaceX. This mission is the first in space for Neyadi, Hoburg and Fedyaev. At 41, Sultan al-Neyadi is the fourth astronaut from an Arab country and the second Emirati to travel in space.
Andrey Fedyaev is the second Russian cosmonaut to fly on a SpaceX rocket to the ISS. NASA astronauts regularly travel to the ISS aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft as part of an exchange program maintained, despite tensions between Washington and Moscow.