Four astronauts boarded the International Space Station on Thursday after a daylong trip inside a spacecraft built by Elon Musk’s space company, SpaceX. The quartet pushed to more than 600 the number of people to have flown to space, a further milestone in 2021, the busiest year for human spaceflight in over a decade. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, nicknamed Endurance, docked with the orbital lab at 6:32 p.m. Eastern time Thursday, about 40 minutes ahead of a schedule announced earlier. “Docking complete, happy to be at the I.S.S.,” Raja Chari, the Crew-3 commander, said from the capsule as he and his fellow astronauts, buckled side-by-side in their seats, joined hands in celebration. Almost two hours later, the hatch opened and the smiling crew members entered the space station one at a time, each wearing blue jumpsuits.

Source: International New York Times November 12, 2021 11:56 UTC