SpaceX delivers astronauts to space station on express flight
The four astronauts, from America, Russia and Japan, arrived at the ISS after launching from Nasa's Kennedy Space Centre.
They will spend around six months orbiting the lab, simulating moon-landing scenarios and testing how gravity shifts affect their ability to pilot spacecraft.
Moving into the space station are Nasa's Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan's Kimiya Yui and Russia's Oleg Platonov, replacing four astronauts who have been up there since March.
'Hello, space station!' Mr Fincke radioed as the capsule docked high above the South Pacific.
'We have cold drinks, hot food, and us waiting – see you soon,' the ISS crew told the new arrivals shortly after contact.
Their flight to the ISS was speedy by US standards, though the Russians hold the record for the fastest trip – three hours. Their arrival means there will be 11 members temporarily living on the space station. Continuously inhabited since 2000, the ISS functions as a test bed for research that supports deeper space exploration, including future missions to Mars.
As part of their stay, the Crew-11 astronauts will simulate moon landing scenarios that could be encountered near the lunar South Pole under the US-led Artemis programme. Using handheld controllers and multiple display screens, they will also test how shifts in gravity affect astronauts' ability to pilot spacecraft.
Among Crew-11's more colourful cargo items are Armenian pomegranate seeds, which will be compared to a control batch kept on Earth to study how microgravity influences crop growth.
The ISS is set to be decommissioned after 2030, with its orbit gradually lowered until it breaks up in the atmosphere over a remote part of the Pacific Ocean called Point Nemo, a spacecraft graveyard.
All four of the astronauts were not originally pencilled in for this mission. Ms Cardman was pulled from another SpaceX flight last year to make room for two Nasa astronauts – Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams – whose stay at the space station lasted nine months instead of a week.
Mr Fincke and Mr Yui had originally been training for the next Boeing Starliner mission, which has been grounded by thruster problems until 2026. Mr Platonov was originally scheduled to join the Soyuz launch lineup a few years ago before dropped out due to illness.
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