When will the astronauts arrive at the space station?
If the launch occurs as scheduled on Sunday, the Crew Dragon will dock at the International Space Station on Monday at about 11 p.m. Eastern time. You can follow its journey below:
The launch occurs when the orbit of the space station passes above the launchpad. However, it takes hours for the capsule to catch up with the space station, which is traveling at more than 17,000 miles per hour. Once the capsule gets near the station, its computer on board will complete a series of maneuvers to safely bring it in proximity to the outpost. Then it will carefully dock with one of the station’s ports that allow astronauts to enter.
Even after docking, it takes the astronauts hours to ensure there are no leaks and to equalize the pressure between the two spacecraft before the hatch is opened, and the new residents can finally enter the space station. That will occur around 1:40 a.m. on Tuesday, and the astronauts will hold a brief boarding ceremony with the station’s current crew.
— Kenneth Chang
What will the astronauts do aboard the space station?
The astronauts are boarding the space station during a month that marks 20 years of people living continuously in space. They will join three other astronauts already there: Kate Rubins of NASA and two Russians, Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov.
They will be doing what astronauts have been doing for the past two decades on the space station: overseeing scientific experiments, performing maintenance tasks, talking to students on the ground.
The astronauts, for example, will be collecting their own biological samples to help scientists on the ground study how dietary changes affect the body. The astronauts will also be growing radishes, the latest experiment to explore whether food can grown in space. (Red lettuce and mizuna mustard greens are among earlier foods that the astronauts have studied.) They will also test whether fungi can break apart asteroid rock and help extract useful metals — a scientific prelude to extraterrestrial mining operations, and a follow-up to a similar, successful experiment that used bacteria.
Delays in the completion of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and another capsule built by Boeing, the Starliner, have often limited the number of astronauts on board at the station at any onetime in recent years. With seven astronauts on board, there will be more hands to complete science work and to address maintenance tasks. The largest number of astronauts ever on board at once is 13.
— Kenneth Chang The New York Times