Astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov reached the ISS, joining Expedition 72 after a successful docking and hatch opening. The crew strength temporarily increased to 11, with plans for some members to return to Earth soon.
NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday, as the SpaceX Dragon Freedom docked to the orbiting complex at 5:30 p.m. EDT on September 29, while the station was 260 statute miles over Botswana.
Following Dragon’s link up to the Harmony module, the astronauts aboard the Dragon and the space station conducted standard leak checks and pressurization between the spacecraft in preparation for hatch opening.
Hague and Gorbunov entered the ISS after opening the hatch between the space station and the pressurized mating adapter at 7:04 p.m. EDT before opening the hatch to Dragon. They were welcomed by the space station’s Expedition 72 crew.
Hague and Gorbunov will join the space station’s Expedition 72 crew of NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps, Don Petitt, Butch Wilmore, and Suni Williams, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexander Grebenkin, Alexey Ovchinin, and Ivan Vagner. For a short time, the number of crew aboard the space station will increase to 11 people until Crew-8 members Dominick, Barratt, Epps, and Grebenkin return to Earth in early October.
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