New Crew Reaches ISS Despite Docking Glitch

Four astronauts arrived at the International Space Station on Friday, finally crossing through the space station’s hatch after ground teams troubleshooted a faulty sensor on SpaceX’s Dragon capsule.

SpaceX’s sixth operational crewed mission for NASA, aptly named Crew-6, blasted off on Thursday at 12:34 a.m. on board a Falcon 9 rocket. The crew was carried by SpaceX’s Dragon Endeavor, which was scheduled to dock to the ISS at 12:43 a.m. ET on Friday. However, the spacecraft had a little trouble anchoring itself to the ISS.

The issue was with a faulty docking hook sensor on Dragon that wouldn’t open. SpaceX ground teams “developed a software override for the faulty sensor that allowed the docking process to successfully continue,” NASA wrote in a blog update. NASA and SpaceX verified that all the docking hooks were in their proper configuration and the spacecraft finally docked with the ISS Harmony module at 1:40 a.m. ET. The crew then opened the hatch between the space station and the pressurized mating adaptor at 3:45 a.m. ET, according to NASA.

NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, along with United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev were welcomed on board the ISS by the Expedition 68 crew members. With the addition of the new crew members, the ISS now hosts 11 astronauts on board. Crew-6 will spend six months aboard the ISS, conducting a variety of science experiments and research on the orbiting lab.

“”Is the station not still leaking air?””

Two Russian capsules had small holes in them, and were repaired. The Russians sent up a replacement capsule. There are usually 2 empty capsules, Russian and ours, so that all the astronauts can bug out in an emergency. After the Space Shuttle, and before SpaceX, we were paying millions and millions for Russia to take astronauts to and from the ISS, as well as supplies. SpaceX has changed all that. SpaceX unmanned freight capsules take supplies up to ISS, and return to be launched again. The SpaceX manned capsules can hold 4 people, and just like so much of SpaceX, the capsules are reusable. The first stage Falcon9 rocket that launched them toward ISS returned to Earth under power and landed on a platform out at sea. It will be towed back to land, refurbished, and launched again, and again, and again. One of these first stages has launched 13 times. SpaceX is revolutionary in driving down the cost. No longer does everything blast off and fall into the ocean. The same day the astronauts took off from Florida, another SpaceX Falcon9 launched from Vandenberg carry 51 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit. That first stage also returned to Earth, to be used again. The low cost of every launch is driving others to look into reusability.

NASA has contracted with other US companies to launch astronauts, but they are not even close to even testing.

Elon Musk and SpaceX are making the slow moving and outrageously expensive NASA Orion rockets look ridiculous. It took NASA 13+ years to finally launch last year. The cost was tens and tens of billions. They used some of the old Shuttle hardware, and still it cost so much. NASA will not launch another for years. NASA is purposefully slowing down Musk and SpaceX so NASA won’t appear more ridiculous. SpaceX would have already launched the huge Starship, with the equally huge rocket beneath Starship, if NASA, FAA, FCC were not slow walking every little thing. The huge Starship does not splash in the ocean. Upon returning to Earth, it lands vertically. SpaceX will eventually have a dozen or more reusable Starships, and reusable boosters to launch people and supplies all over the Solar System.

Robert Heinlein is smiling down on all of it, and probably shouting ‘It’s about time!’

“”I wonder if the Space X unmanned cargo capsule COULD bring stranded astronauts back in an emergency””

I am not sure. If NASA ET AL would ever get off of Elon’s / SpaceX’s back, he could probably have a standby rocket and capsule ready (he may just go ahead and do it anyway). Musk has already offered a no-cost launch to update the Hubble Space Telescope. We updated / fixed the Hubble twice over the decades using the Space Shuttle. Besides the individual fixes, Hubble is designed with these modules, so most of the work can be done on the ground, and then the astronauts just have to slide out the old, and slide in the new. Hubble currently is limited due to not all the giros functioning. Even with these limitations, Hubble still finds amazing new images and information. Just imagine what an upgrade to today’s technology could do to enhancing Hubble. While NASA is still way too bureaucratic, working with entities like the Jet Propulsion Lab JPL in Pasadena, some of the successes are amazing. The Mars Rover Opportunity was scheduled to last 90 days. It lasted 13 years. Right now we have two SUV sized Mars Rovers. One has been there 10 years, the other two. We were not sure flight in the Martian atmosphere was possible. A small helicopter came along with the last rover. It flew, and was thought to last maybe 30 days, if it flew at all. Well, it’s been flying for over a year. That same rover determined we can make oxygen out of the Martian atmosphere (research Moxie for more info).

As I have stated before, we must move into the Solar System, and eventually farther. Our Sun will eventually expand, and no life on Earth will survive (it is part of the natural cycle of a star that size). Mars will probably be livable for some (underground at first), but we must venture out. Science fiction sometimes becomes science fact, and the fact is that humans have to move out into the universe.

Musk keeps receiving private money investment for SpaceX, no doubt other entrepreneurs with dollars see what can be done. I know some see controversy with all the tax dollars going to Tesla, but what Musk is doing to push us off the Earth and into space is essential, and so exciting. While some critics commented on the first Starship launch failures and crashes, some of it was planned destruction, testing the limits of hardware and software. The Falcon9 failed many times while he was figuring it out. Now it launches all the time, returning to be launched again and again.

I agree with all of your post until you went there:

“SpaceX will eventually have a dozen or more reusable Starships, and reusable boosters to launch people and supplies all over the Solar System.”

I guess it depends on what you mean by “eventually”.

There are some major technological challenges that have not yet been met—and I am not persuaded that anyone has figured them out...

If SpaceX tries to rush manned “people and supplies all over the Solar System” they are gonna have a bunch of dead folks “all over the Solar System”.

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