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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00:00SoftCapture confirmed.
00:17And contact confirmed.
00:19Dragon made contact with the International Space Station at 1128 p.m. Pacific while flying
00:24central over the North Atlantic Ocean just east of Newfoundland.
00:33And now you are seeing a live view inside the Dragon Endeavour spacecraft.
00:39You can see the SpaceX suits that the Crew-8 crew members were wearing for the docking operations
00:47as well as for launch on Sunday, March 3rd.
00:50Crew-8 is currently standing by and they will be ingressing into the International Space Station
00:59just a short time from now.
01:05And there we can see Crew-8 being joyfully welcomed aboard the International Space Station.
01:20First aboard was NASA astronaut Matthew Dominic.
01:24Followed behind him, NASA astronaut Michael Barrett and NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps.
01:30And pulling up the end, we have Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grubinken.
01:50The Crew-8 astronauts now officially a part of Expedition 70.
01:56And the other Expedition 70 crew members giving them hugs and handshakes as they make their way
02:02onto the International Space Station which will be their home for the next six months
02:07as they conduct important science and research.
02:21Station, this is Houston on Space to Ground 2. Are you ready for the event?
02:34All right, let's roll.
02:38All right, stand by, stand by.
02:50Hey, Andy, sorry about that. Can you give us a little count on the microphone?
02:54We weren't getting the audio down here.
03:14Check.
03:15Okay, just another quick count.
03:241, 2, 3, 4, 5,
03:316, 7, 8, 9, 10.
03:38All right, 11, 12, 13, we're ready to roll.
03:45Excellent. A big warm welcome to Crew-8 from all of us up here.
03:52Wouldn't you know it, after having made fun of Crew-8 for being or for launching late,
03:56they arrive early to the Space Station and have us scrambling this morning.
04:01But it's absolutely fantastic to see their smiling faces.
04:06Welcome to space, Matt, Jeanette and Alex.
04:11And welcome back to space to Mike.
04:15This is also for Crew-7 a slightly bittersweet moment because with their arrival,
04:20it also starts the countdown to our own departure and return to Earth in about a week's time.
04:27But it's great to see Crew-8.
04:29Welcome. You guys are going to have a fantastic mission, I'm sure of it.
04:34And we look forward to spending the next week in space with you.
04:37And for Laurel, Alec and Nikolai, there you are, a few more weeks.
04:47But welcome to you. And I'll pass the mic to you, Matt.
04:53Thank you so much. We are, of course, super excited to be here.
04:56And after we saw you call us out yesterday,
04:58we phoned a few friends to expedite things to kind of throw you off guard on purpose.
05:02Or so we hope or wished.
05:04Anyway, we're so excited to be here.
05:06Big thank you to everyone who helped put this together, such a giant team around the world.
05:11And we're excited to be on board and ready to take over the watch.
05:15Over to you, Mike.
05:17Well, first thing, it's just great to be back.
05:19There's such a sense of familiarity and homeness to the station.
05:23And I can't wait to get back to work.
05:25But just a big shout out to all the folks who got us up here to NASA,
05:28our friends at SpaceX for building a great little spaceship
05:31and a little taste of the flexibility this morning
05:33that we'll be expecting over the next six months.
05:36I know that our flight's going to go by in a blink of an eye and really anxious to start.
05:40Thanks for the very warm welcome from Crew 7.
05:45I second everything that Matt and Mike has said.
05:49And I just want to thank my family as well for being patient with me.
05:53And I made it here.
06:03Well, once again, welcome to the National Space Station.
06:21This is an incredible place.
06:23You will have a great time up here, just like we did.
06:27We are doing so much exciting science at the moment.
06:30And we look forward to introducing you to all of it.
06:33So once again, welcome, Crew 8.
06:40All right.
06:41Thanks, station.
06:42For all of that, I can tell you on behalf of us that are left here on the planet,
06:45we are incredibly proud to be part of this.
06:48And we're all smiling down here.
06:50All right, station.
06:51We are now resuming operational communications.
07:04And there you have it.
07:05Crew 8 is officially on board the International Space Station
07:08and welcomed by the Expedition 70 crew,
07:10bringing the current space station population to 11 for the next few days.
07:15Crew 8 began their journey to the orbiting laboratory
07:18following a liftoff at 9.53 p.m. Central, 10.53 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, March 3rd,
07:23from launch pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida,
07:27atop a giant space shuttle.
07:29Launch pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop a Falcon 9 rocket.
07:35Following orbital insertion, the Dragon vehicle carrying Crew 8
07:38completed a series of automatic maneuvers
07:40to guide the spacecraft to the forward-facing port of the station's Harmony module.
07:44Dragon Endeavour and its four-person crew of NASA astronauts
07:47Matthew Dominick, Michael Barrett, and Jeannette Epps
07:50and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grubinken
07:53docked to the International Space Station at 1.28 a.m. Central,
07:562.28 a.m. Eastern on Tuesday, March 5th,
07:59as the space station and Dragon were traveling over the North Atlantic,
08:02just east of Newfoundland.