A commercial crew, including the first Turkish citizen to go to space, successfully attaches to the International Space Station.

January 20, 2024 Benjamin Hughes

An independently chartered Crew Dragon spacecraft from SpaceX successfully caught up with the object.International Space Station

On the morning of Saturday, the spacecraft smoothly docked with the orbital outpost, bringing a four-person crew to conduct a two-week commercial research mission.

Michael López-Alegría, a former astronaut with NASA, served as the commander of the Crew Dragon. He was joined by Italian co-pilot Walter Velladei, Swedish flier Marcus Wandt, and Alper Gezeravci, the first Turkish citizen to travel to space. The crew successfully docked at the station’s forward Harmony module at 5:42 a.m. EST after a two-day rendezvous.

They were

greeted on the International Space Station by the station’s current seven-member crew: Soyuz MS-24/70S commander Oleg Kononenko and his two crewmates, Nikolai Chub and NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara, along with NASA Crew-7 commander Jasmin Moghbeli, European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Japanese flier Satoshi Furukawa and cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov.

The Ax-3 team’s arrival will increase the current crew on the International Space Station to 11 for the next 2 weeks. The newcomers, dressed in dark blue flight suits, were the focal point of a welcoming ceremony on Saturday (pictured from left to right): commander Michael López-Alegría (representing the United States and Spain), Marcus Wandt (from Sweden), Alper Gezeravci (from Turkey), and Walter Velladei (from Italy).

NASA TV

Crew Dragon

There are eight nations represented aboard the ISS, including the United States, Spain, Russia, Japan, Denmark, Italy, Turkey, and Sweden. López-Alegría, who is a citizen of both the U.S. and Spain, is among the representatives.

William Harwood

Since 1984, Bill Harwood has been providing ongoing coverage of the U.S. space program, initially as the bureau chief for United Press International at Cape Canaveral and currently as a consultant for CBS News.

Source: cbsnews.com