China News Agency, Houston, April 24. At 7:05 am on April 24, Eastern Time, four astronauts aboard the US Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) manned "Dragon" spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station.
This is the first time in history that a recovered manned spacecraft has been used to complete a space mission.
According to NASA’s official website, at 5:49 am on the 23rd, the manned "Dragon" spacecraft was launched by the "Falcon 9" rocket from the Kennedy Space Center launch pad 39 in Florida and sent into it. Earth orbit.
After flying in orbit for about 23.5 hours, the spacecraft automatically docked with the International Space Station at 5:08 am on the 24th.
When docking, the spacecraft was 264 miles above the Indian Ocean.
About 2 hours after the completion of the docking, the astronauts performing this mission entered the space station. They will stay there for 6 months to conduct scientific research and facility maintenance work, and plan to return to Earth before October 31.
This manned "Dragon" spacecraft, named "Endeavour", carried two American astronauts to the International Space Station in May 2020 to perform SpaceX's commercial manned test mission (Demo-2), and returned in August of the same year. Earth.
In order to realize the secondary use of the recovered spacecraft, SpaceX replaced some valves and heat shields on the spacecraft, and installed new parachutes.
When welcoming the latest batch of astronauts, the number of the space station reached 11 (including 3 astronauts on the "Expedition 65" mission), and they will spend about 5 days together.
The maximum passenger capacity of the International Space Station is 6 astronauts.
It is worth mentioning that after the completion of the docking between Endeavour and the space station, it means that two commercial manned "Dragon" spacecraft are docked at the space station at the same time, and the other spacecraft will perform SpaceX's first commercial manned flight in November 2020. Arrived at the space station during mission (Crew-1).
The spacecraft will return to Earth next Wednesday (28th) with four astronauts carrying out the "Crew-1" mission.
According to a report from the science and technology website "Space", at 1 p.m. on the 23rd, on the way to the International Space Station, the astronauts on the "Endeavour" received an alert that there was a piece of space debris not far from the spacecraft.
In response to an emergency, all staff put on spacesuits.
The alarm was lifted after 20 minutes, and the spacecraft did not meet the debris.
According to the media, for many years, some space vehicles have occasionally made close contact with space junk, and the vehicle will move to avoid the junk. This week, the European Space Agency (ESA) stated at the 8th European Space Debris Conference that according to the agency’s estimates, there are currently 128 million objects with a diameter greater than one millimeter in Earth orbit. When flying at speeds of tens of thousands of kilometers, collisions with objects with extremely small diameters can also cause serious consequences. (Finish)