The self-flying spacecraft, Endeavour, docked with the space station shortly after 1:40 a.m. EST
After a slight delay early on Friday, a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying two U.S. astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut, and an astronaut from the United Arab Emirates on a six-month science mission, successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS).
Almost 25 hours after its launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, the self-flying spacecraft, Endeavour, docked with the space station shortly after 1:40 a.m. EST.
According to a live NASA webcast of the rendezvous, the coupling was confirmed as the ISS and capsule flew in tandem at 17,500 mph roughly 250 miles above Earth across the coast of east Africa. Unfortunately, while the Crew Dragon was approaching the station, docking operations ran late.
Despite a defective sensor indicating a potential failure, SpaceX ground control crews stopped the capsule 65 feet from the ISS for 23 minutes while they checked that all 12 latching hooks used to fasten the spacecraft to the docking port were adequately deployed. After ground teams performed a software override, the problem was ultimately fixed.
Before opening the hatches to the station’s interior, which was scheduled to take roughly two hours, the crew carried out the usual leak tests and pressurized the route between the capsule and the ISS.
