On Sunday, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA’s Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps, and Alexander Grebenkin of Russia from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
After a 16-hour trip, the astronauts are expected to dock with the orbiting lab on Tuesday, approximately 250 miles (420 km) above Earth.
In the microgravity condition of the orbiting platform, the crew will conduct over 250 experiments.
The team from the US, Denmark, Japan, and Russia that has been there since August will be replaced by them.
After three days of delay owing to strong weather, space station captain Andreas Mogensen questioned via X, “When are you getting here already?”
A tiny breach in the SpaceX capsule’s hatch seal sparked a last-minute rush of reviews that nearly resulted in another postponement on Sunday night, but it was ultimately decided to be safe for the mission as a whole.
