'A Pretty Glorious Sight', Indian-American Astronaut Raja Chari Says After Arriving at Space Station
05:52 GMT 12.11.2021 (Updated: 16:59 GMT 12.04.2023)
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A new SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carried three NASA astronauts - Thomas Marshburn, Raja Chari, and Kayla Barron - and a European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer - to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the Crew-3 mission. The astronauts will spend six months in orbit and carry out research and experiments.
The International Space Station (ISS) is going to be the new home for four NASA astronauts, who took off from the agency's Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Wednesday night and successfully docked at the Orbit lab after completing a journey of about 21 hours.
Calling it an emotional moment, Indian-American astronaut Raja Chari, the commander of the Dragon capsule, said that spotting the space station 20 miles away was "a pretty glorious sight".
The astronauts also shared a glimpse of what it's like to be in zero gravity and orbiting Earth inside Crew Dragon.
The four @SpaceX #Crew3 astronauts show what it is like orbiting Earth inside the #CrewDragon Endurance in this video tour from space. https://t.co/yuOTrYN8CV pic.twitter.com/KHxnvZcxD6
— International Space Station (@Space_Station) November 11, 2021
Excited and thrilled to be in space and ahead of the landing at the orbit research lab, German astronaut Matthias Maurer said: "Soaring in space and shining like a diamond".
Crew-3 checks in after catching sight of the @space_station ahead of docking, now targeted for 6:33 p.m. EST pic.twitter.com/Po532uBhc4
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 11, 2021
One of the space station's crew, Mark Vande Hei, welcomed the four astronauts and said: "I can't tell you how happy I am to see these smiling faces. Every one of us, all seven of us, are friends, and we're going to become even better friends as time goes on".
Four new astronauts through the hatch and seven crewmembers total on the @Space_Station!
— NASA (@NASA) November 12, 2021
After almost exactly a day from launch, #Crew3 is aboard the orbiting laboratory. pic.twitter.com/QJoBUsJcsj
Vande Hei and one of the two Russian cosmonauts on board are midway through a one-year mission slated to end in March.
