00:00Soft capture confirmed.
00:16And contact confirmed.
00:19Dragon made contact with the International Space Station at 11.28 p.m. Pacific
00:23while flying central over the North Atlantic Ocean just east of Newfoundland.
00:30And now you are seeing a live view inside the Dragon Endeavour spacecraft.
00:39You can see the SpaceX suits that the Kru-8 crewmembers were wearing for the docking operations
00:47as well as for launch on Sunday, March 3rd.
00:52Kru-8 is currently standing by and they will be ingressing into the International Space Station
00:58just a short time from now.
01:04And there we can see Kru-8 being joyfully welcomed aboard the International Space Station.
01:12The first aboard was NASA astronaut Matthew Dominic followed behind him NASA astronaut Michael
01:27Barrett and NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps and pulling up the end we have Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander
01:34Grubinkin.
01:50The Kru-8 astronauts now officially a part of Expedition 70 and the other Expedition 70 crewmembers giving them hugs and handshakes
01:56as they make their way onto the International Space Station which will be their home for the next six months
02:05as they conduct important science and research.
02:09Spatioon, this is Houston on Space to Ground 2. Are you ready for the event?
02:23Are you ready for the event?
02:27Alright, let's roll.
02:36Alright, stand by, stand by.
02:42Hey Andy, sorry about that. Can you give us a little count on the microphone we weren't getting the audio down here.
02:56Okay, just a, another quick count.
03:21One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
03:38Alright, eleven, twelve, thirteen, we're ready to roll.
03:46And a big warm welcome to Crew-8 from all of us up here.
03:52Wouldn't you know it, after having made fun of Crew-8 for being, or for launching late,
03:56they arrive early to the space station and have us scrambling this morning.
04:00But it's absolutely fantastic to see their smiling faces.
04:05Welcome to space, Matt, Jeannette, and Alex.
04:11And welcome back to space, to Mike.
04:14This is also for Crew-7, a slightly bittersweet moment, because with their arrival,
04:19it also starts the countdown to our own departure and return to Earth in about a week's time.
04:26But it's great to see Crew-8, welcome.
04:30You guys are going to have a fantastic mission, I'm sure of it.
04:33And we look forward to spending the next week in space with you.
04:37And for Laurel, Oleg, and Nikolai, there you are, a few more weeks.
04:46But welcome to you, and I'll pass the mic to you, Matt.
04:50Thank you so much.
04:53We are, of course, super excited to be here.
04:55And after we saw you call us out yesterday, we phoned a few friends to expedite things
05:00to kind of throw you off guard on purpose.
05:02Or so we hope or wished.
05:04Anyway, we're so excited to be here.
05:06A big thank you to everyone who helped put this together, such a giant team around the world.
05:10And we're excited to be on board and ready to take over the watch.
05:14Over to you, Mike.
05:16Well, first thing, it's just great to be back.
05:18There's such a sense of familiarity and homeness to the station.
05:22And I can't wait to get back to work.
05:24But just a big shout-out to all the folks who got us up here for NASA,
05:27our friends at SpaceX for a building.
05:29A great little spaceship and a little taste of the flexibility this morning
05:32that we'll be expecting over the next six months.
05:35I know that our flight's going to go by in a blink of an eye.
05:37And I'm really anxious to start.
05:39Thanks for the very warm welcome from Crew-7.
05:43I second everything that Matt and Mike have said.
05:48And I just want to thank my family as well for being patient with me.
05:52And I made it here.
05:54Well, once again, welcome to the National Space Station.
05:55This is an incredible place.
05:57You will have a great time up here, just like we did.
06:02We are doing so much exciting science at the moment.
06:05And we look forward to introducing you and joining us,
06:06this is the rest of the world to be able to enjoy.
06:07So, I hope that the full-time life is going to be able to enjoy the rest.
06:08And I hope that the rest of the day will be the same.
06:09Thank you very much.
06:10I'll send you to the next slide.
06:11I'll send you to the next slide.
06:12Thank you very much, all the teams.
06:13Thank you very much.
06:16Well, once again, welcome to the National Space Station.
06:21This is an incredible place.
06:23You will have a great time up here, just like we did.
06:27We are doing so much exciting science at the moment.
06:30and we look forward to introducing you to all of it.
06:33So, once again, welcome, Crew 8.
06:35All right, thanks, Station, for all of that.
06:43I can tell you on behalf of us that are left here on the planet,
06:45we are incredibly proud to be a part of this,
06:48and we're all smiling down here.
06:50All right, Station, we are now resuming operational communications.
07:00And there you have it, Crew 8 is officially on board
07:11the International Space Station and welcomed by the Expedition 70 crew,
07:15bringing the current space station population to 11 for the next few days.
07:20Crew 8 began their journey to the orbiting laboratory following a liftoff
07:24at 9.53 p.m. Central, 10.53 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, March 3rd,
07:28from Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida
07:32atop a Falcon 9 rocket.
07:35Following orbital insertion, the Dragon Vehicle Carrying Crew 8
07:38completed a series of automatic maneuvers to guide the spacecraft
07:41to the forward-facing port of the station's Harmony Module.
07:44Dragon Endeavour and its four-person crew of NASA astronauts
07:47Matthew Dominick, Michael Barrett, and Jeanette Epps,
07:50and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grubinkin
07:53docked to the International Space Station at 1.28 a.m. Central,
07:562.28 a.m. Eastern on Tuesday, March 5th,
07:59as the Space Station and Dragon were traveling over the North Atlantic,
08:02just east of Newfoundland.
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