NASA
The ISS currently has eight ships attached
Low Earth orbit is increasingly busy: a record number of eight spacecraft are currently docked with the International Space Station, while a total of 10 astronauts occupy the orbiting laboratory.
For the first time since it came into operation, just over 25 years ago, all eight docking docks of the station are occupied, NASA revealed in .
This rare “full house” situation in orbit occurs after the new capsule docking Cygnus XLfrom Northrop Grumman, which had been temporarily moved aside by the Canadarm2 robotic arm to make room for the arrival, last week, of a Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft from Roscosmos with three crew members.
The Russian spacecraft, which carried the astronaut Chris Williams and the customs Sergey Kud-Sverchkov e Sergey Mikaev for an 8-month mission, it departed on November 27 from the Baikonur cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan, whose launch pad following the launch of the mission.
The eight ships currently docked to the ISS are two Dragon capsules da SpaceX, a Cygnus XL, a HTV-X1 from the Japanese space agency JAXA, two Soyuz capsules of Roscosmos and two cargo ships Progress.
Prior to the arrival of the Soyuz crew capsule, NASA mission control used the Canadarm2 robotic arm to move the Cygnus-23 cargo shipfrom Northrop Grumman, to make space for docking of the crew.
Northrop Grumman’s expendable freighter was later redocked to the ISS, where it will remain in orbit until March 2026. The capsule is loaded with about five tons of rubbish and unnecessary cargowhich will disintegrate in the Earth’s atmosphere during reentry.
This “party” of eight docked ships will end next Monday, when the second Russian capsule currently docked, the Soyuz MS-27return to Earth, bringing back the NASA astronaut Jonny Kim and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov e Alexey Zubritsky.
The spacecraft will undock from the Prichal module and return to Earth, landing by parachute in Kazakhstan.
With the return of Soyuz MS-27 already scheduled, it remains uncertain when Russia will be able to launch another manned spacecraft to the International Space Station. After the launch of Soyuz MS-28, a structure collapsed on the launch pad at Complex 31/6, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
This is the single location Russian launch system capable of sending astronauts and cargo to the ISS and is currently out of service until damage is repaired. While the Baikonur cosmodrome is not operational, manned trips to the ISS are dependent on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.
