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The four U.S., Russian and Japanese astronauts pulled up in
their SpaceX capsule after launching from NASA's Kennedy Space
Center. They will spend at least six months at the orbiting lab,
swapping places with colleagues up there since March. SpaceX
will bring those four back as early as Wednesday.
Moving in are NASA's Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan's
Kimiya Yui and Russia's Oleg Platonov — each of whom had been
originally assigned to other missions. “Hello, space station!”
Fincke radioed as soon as the capsule docked high above the
South Pacific.
Cardman and another astronaut were pulled from a SpaceX flight
last year to make room for NASA's two stuck astronauts, Boeing
Starliner test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, whose
space station stay went from one week to more than nine months.
Fincke and Yui had been training for the next Starliner mission.
But with Starliner grounded by thruster and other problems until
2026, the two switched to SpaceX.
Platonov was bumped from the Soyuz launch lineup a couple of
years ago because of an undisclosed illness.
Their arrival temporarily puts the space station population at
11. The astronauts greeting them had cold drinks and hot food
waiting for them.
While their taxi flight was speedy by U.S. standards, the
Russians hold the record for the fastest trip to the space
station — a lightning-fast three hours.
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