SpaceX delivers 4 astronauts to the International Space Station just 15 hours after launch

By MARCIA DUNN

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX delivered a fresh crew to the International Space Station on Saturday, making the trip in a quick 15 hours.

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.

“It was such an unbelievably beautiful sight to see the space station come into our view for the first time,” Cardman said once on board.

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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