The International Space Station (ISS) is presently a bit of extra crowded than typical after three new crew members arrived on the facility on Wednesday, September 21, bringing the crew depend to 10.

The new arrivals embody NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin. The mission is Rubio’s first to area. The trio arrived aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on Wednesday afternoon ET following the launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan simply over three hours earlier.

Rubio, Prokopyev, and Petelin be a part of Expedition 67 Commander Oleg Artemyev on the orbiting outpost, together with NASA astronauts Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, and Jessica Watkins, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, and cosmonauts Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov of Roscosmos.

The new crew members will spend six months dwelling and dealing aboard the space-based laboratory, conducting science experiments in microgravity experiments and maybe collaborating in extravehicular actions, higher often called spacewalks.

The typical crew depend on the ISS is round six or seven, however it’ll keep at 10 till September 29 when a Soyuz spacecraft will return to Earth carrying Artemyev, Matveev, and Korsakov after prolonged stays aboard the area station.

NASA has described the orbital facility, which went into operation 20 years in the past, as “larger than a six-bedroom house,” with six sleeping quarters, three bogs, a fitness center, and a 360-degree-view bay window, so even with 10 folks on board, it shouldn’t really feel too cramped.

Plus, a crew of 10 isn’t essentially the most the station has hosted at one time with the document presently standing at 13 crew members throughout a mission in 2009.

It’s presently a busy time for the ISS concerning crew rotation. Following at the moment’s arrivals and subsequent week’s departure, Hines, Lindgren, Watkins, and Cristoforetti will even return dwelling at across the identical time as 4 new crew members arrive aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft in early-to-mid October.

Editors’ Recommendations