SpaceX Docks Crew-3 Astronauts With International Space Station Nearly A Day After Taking Flight

Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk’s SpaceX on Wednesday docked space agency NASA’s Crew-3 mission astronauts with the International Space Station nearly a day after the mission was launched. 

What Happened: SpaceX’s Falcon 9 capsule autonomously docked with the ISS at 06:32 p.m. ET, uniting the four Crew-3 astronauts with the three crew members aboard the space station that orbits on, average, 248 miles above earth. 

See Also: Elon Musk's SpaceX Launches 4 Crew-3 Astronauts To Space

The space agency shared a short clip of the moment when the Crew-3 astronauts passed through the hatch to the orbiting laboratory.

Four new astronauts through the hatch and seven crewmembers total on the @Space_Station!

After almost exactly a day from launch, #Crew3 is aboard the orbiting laboratory. pic.twitter.com/QJoBUsJcsj

— NASA (@NASA) November 12, 2021

After a six-month stay, Dragon and the Crew-3 astronauts would leave the orbiting laboratory and return to Earth.

Crew-3 is SpaceX’s third operational crewed flight for NASA and the fifth human spaceflight mission that SpaceX has launched since May 2020.

The Big Picture: SpaceX and NASA are working on multiple projects including a $2.9 billion lunar landing contract. Musk dreams of colonizing Mars and has in the past said he remains “highly confident” that SpaceX would land humans on Mars by 2026.

Photo: Courtesy of SpaceX