NASA's SpaceX Crew-8 Entered International Space Station After Docking

Space.com

Commander Matthew Dominick, pilot Michael Barratt, mission specialists Jeanette Epps and Aleksandr Grebenkin arrived at the International Space Station after docking.  Credit: NASA

Transcript

00:00You

00:12Soft capture confirmed

00:15and

00:17Contact confirm dragon made contact with the International Space Station at 11 28 p.m

00:23Pacific while flying central over the North Atlantic Ocean just east of Newfoundland

00:30And now you are seeing a live view inside the Dragon Endeavour spacecraft.

00:39You can see the SpaceX suits that the Crew-8 crew members were wearing for the docking

00:46operations as well as for launch on Sunday, March 3rd.

00:53Crew-8 is currently standing by and they will be ingressing into the International Space

00:57Station just a short time from now.

01:06And there we can see Crew-8 being joyfully welcomed aboard the International Space Station.

01:21First aboard was NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick.

01:24Followed behind him, NASA astronaut Michael Barrett and NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps.

01:31And pulling up the end, we have Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grubinken.

01:50The Crew-8 astronauts now officially a part of Expedition 70 and the other Expedition

01:5770 crew members giving them hugs and handshakes as they make their way onto the International

02:03Space Station, which will be their home for the next six months as they conduct important

02:08science and research.

02:21Station, this is Houston on Space to Ground 2.

02:23Are you ready for the event?

02:24All right, let's roll.

02:25All right, stand by.

02:26Stand by.

02:27Hey, Andy, sorry about that.

02:52Can you give us a little count on the microphone?

02:54We weren't getting the audio down here.

03:14Check.

03:18Okay, just another quick count.

03:241, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

03:38All right, 11, 12, 13, we're ready to roll.

03:46Excellent.

03:47A big warm welcome to Crew-8 from all of us up here.

03:52Wouldn't you know it, after having made fun of Crew-8 for being or for launching late,

03:57they arrive early to the Space Station and have us scrambling this morning.

04:01But it's absolutely fantastic to see their smiling faces.

04:06Welcome to space, Matt, Jeanette and Alex, and welcome back to space to Mike.

04:15This is also for Crew-7, a slightly bittersweet moment because with their arrival, it also

04:21starts the countdown to our own departure and return to Earth in about a week's time.

04:27But it's great to see Crew-8.

04:30Welcome.

04:31You guys are going to have a fantastic mission, I'm sure of it.

04:34And we look forward to spending the next week in space with you and for Laurel, Alec and

04:44Nikolai, there you are, a few more weeks.

04:47But welcome to you, and I'll pass the mic to you, Matt.

04:53Thank you so much.

04:54We are, of course, super excited to be here.

04:56And after we saw you call us out yesterday, we phoned a few friends to expedite things

05:00to kind of throw you off guard on purpose, or so we hope or wished.

05:04Anyway, we're so excited to be here.

05:06A big thank you to everyone who helped put this together, such a giant team around the

05:10world, and we're excited to be on board and ready to take over the watch.

05:15Over to you, Mike.

05:17Well, first thing, it's just great to be back.

05:19There's such a sense of familiarity and homeness to the station.

05:23And I can't wait to get back to work.

05:25But just a big shout out to all the folks who got us up here to NASA, our friends at

05:29SpaceX for building a great little spaceship and a little taste of the flexibility this

05:33morning that we'll be expecting over the next six months.

05:36I know that our flight's going to go by in a blink of an eye and really anxious to start.

05:40Thanks for the very warm welcome from Crew-7.

05:43I second everything that Matt and Mike have said.

05:49And I just want to thank my family as well for being patient with me.

05:53And I made it here.

05:55Awesome.

06:18Well, once again, welcome to the National Space Station.

06:21This is an incredible place.

06:23You will have a great time up here just like we did.

06:26We are doing so much exciting science at the moment.

06:30And we look forward to introducing you to all of it.

06:33So once again, welcome, Crew-8.

06:40All right.

06:41Thanks, station.

06:42For all of that, I can tell you on behalf of us that are left here on the planet, we

06:46are incredibly proud to be part of this.

06:48And we're all smiling down here.

06:50All right, station.

06:51And we are now resuming operational communications.

07:08And there you have it.

07:10Crew-8 is officially on board the International Space Station and welcomed by the Expedition

07:1470 crew, bringing the current space station population to 11 for the next few days.

07:20Crew-8 began their journey to the orbiting laboratory following a liftoff at 9.53 p.m.

07:25Central, 10.53 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, March 3, from launch pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space

07:31Center in Florida atop a Falcon 9 rocket.

07:34Following orbital insertion, the Dragon vehicle carrying Crew-8 completed a series of automatic

07:39maneuvers to guide the spacecraft to the forward-facing port of the station's Harmony module.

07:44Dragon Endeavour and its four-person crew of NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael

07:48Barrett, and Jeanette Epps and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grubinken talked to the International

07:53Space Station at 1.28 a.m. Central, 2.28 a.m. Eastern on Tuesday, March 5, as the space

07:59station and Dragon were traveling over the North Atlantic just east of Newfoundland.

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