NASA's SpaceX Crew-8 Entered International Space Station After Docking
Commander Matthew Dominick, pilot Michael Barratt, mission specialists Jeanette Epps and Aleksandr Grebenkin arrived at the International Space Station after docking.
Credit: NASA
Credit: NASA
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00:00 >> And contact confirmed. Dragon made contact with the International Space Station at 11:28 p.m. Pacific while flying central over the North Atlantic Ocean just east of Newfoundland.
00:29 And now you are seeing a live view inside the Dragon Endeavour spacecraft.
00:38 You can see the SpaceX suits that the Crew 8 crew members were wearing for the docking operations as well as for launch on Sunday, March 3rd.
00:51 Crew 8 is currently standing by and they will be ingressing into the International Space Station just a short time from now.
01:05 And there we can see Crew 8 being joyfully welcomed aboard the International Space Station.
01:21 First aboard was NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick. Followed behind him NASA astronaut Michael Barrett and NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps.
01:31 And then pulling up the end we have Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grubinken.
01:51 Crew 8 astronauts now officially a part of Expedition 70 and the other Expedition 70 crew members giving them hugs and handshakes as they make their way onto the International Space Station which will be their home for the next six months as they conduct important science and research.
02:10 Station this is Houston on Space to Ground 2. Are you ready for the event?
02:35 All right let's roll. Stand by, stand by.
02:51 Sorry about that. Can you give us a little count on the microphone? We weren't getting the audio down here.
03:15 Check.
03:19 Okay just another quick count.
03:24 One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
03:38 All right 11, 12, 13 we're ready to roll.
03:46 Excellent. A big warm welcome to Crew 8 from all of us up here.
03:52 Wouldn't you know it after having made fun of Crew 8 for being or for launching late they arrive early to the Space Station and have us scrambling this morning.
04:01 But it's absolutely fantastic to see their smiling faces.
04:06 Welcome to space Matt, Jeanette and Alex and welcome back to space to Mike.
04:15 This is also for Crew 7 a slightly bittersweet moment because with their arrival it also starts to count down to our own departure and return to Earth in about a week's time.
04:27 But it's great to see Crew 8. Welcome.
04:31 You guys are going to have a fantastic mission. I'm sure of it.
04:34 And we look forward to spending the next week in space with you and for Laurel, Alec and Nikolai, there you are, a few more weeks.
04:47 But welcome to you and I'll pass the mic to you Matt.
04:53 Thank you so much. We are of course super excited to be here.
04:56 And after we saw you call us out yesterday we phoned a few friends to expedite things to kind of throw you off guard on purpose or so we hope or wished.
05:05 Anyway we're so excited to be here. A big thank you to everyone who helped put this together such a giant team around the world.
05:11 And we're excited to be on board and ready to take over the watch. Over to you Mike.
05:18 Well first thing it's just great to be back. There's such a sense of familiarity and homeness to the station.
05:23 And I can't wait to get back to work. But just a big shout out to all the folks who got us up here to NASA.
05:29 Our friends at SpaceX for building a great little spaceship and a little taste of the flexibility this morning that we'll be expecting over the next six months.
05:37 I know that our flight's going to go by in a blink of an eye and I'm really anxious to start.
05:41 Thanks for the very warm welcome from Crew 7.
05:46 I second everything that Matt and Mike has said and I just want to thank my family as well for being patient with me and I made it here.
05:57 Well once again welcome to the National Space Station.
06:21 This is an incredible place. You will have a great time up here just like we did.
06:27 We are doing so much exciting science at the moment and we look forward to introducing you to all of it.
06:33 So once again welcome Crew 8.
06:40 All right. Thanks station for all of that I can tell you on behalf of us that are left here on the planet.
06:45 We are incredibly proud to be part of this and we're all smiling down here.
06:50 All right station. We are now resuming operational communications.
07:09 And there you have it. Crew 8 is officially on board the International Space Station and welcomed by the Expedition 70 crew bringing the current space station population to 11 for the next few days.
07:20 Crew 8 began their journey to the orbiting laboratory following a liftoff at 9.53 p.m. Central, 10.53 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, March 3rd from launch pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop a Falcon 9 rocket.
07:35 Following orbital insertion the Dragon vehicle carrying Crew 8 completed a series of automatic maneuvers to guide the spacecraft to the forward facing port of the station's Harmony Module.
07:45 Dragon Endeavour and its four-person crew of NASA astronauts Matthew Dominic, Michael Barrett and Jeanette Epps and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grubinkin docked to the International Space Station at 1.28 a.m. Central, 2.28 a.m. Eastern on Tuesday, March 5th as the space station and Dragon were traveling over the North Atlantic just east of Newfoundland.