00:12Soft 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.
00:33And 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
00:46as 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
00:59just a short time from now.
01:05And there we can see Kru-8 being joyfully welcomed aboard the International Space Station.
01:20First aboard was NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick 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
02:00and handshakes as they make their way onto the International Space Station, which will be the
02:04their home for the next six months as they conduct important science and research.
02:21Space Station, this is Houston on Space to Ground 2. Are you ready for the event?
02:49Space Station, this is Houston on Space Station.
02:54We weren't getting the audio down here.
03:14Check.
03:18Okay, just another quick count.
03:23One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
03:37All right, 11, 12, 13, we're ready to roll.
03:45Excellent.
03:46A 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,
03:55or for launching late, they arrive early to the space station
03:58and 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,
04:19because with their arrival, it also starts the countdown to our own departure
04:24and return to Earth in about a week's time.
04:27But it's great to see Crew 8.
04:29Welcome.
04:30You guys are going to have a fantastic mission.
04:32I'm sure of it.
04:34And we look forward to spending the next week in space with you.
04:38And for Laurel, Oleg, and Nikolai, there you are, a few more weeks.
04:47But welcome to you, and I'll pass the mic to you, Matt.
04:53Thank you so much.
04:54We are, of course, super excited to be here.
04:56And after we saw you call us out yesterday,
04:58we phoned a few friends to expedite things to 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,
05:09such a giant team around the world.
05:11And we're excited to be on board and ready to take over the watch.
05:15Over to you, Mike.
05:17Well, first thing, it's just great to be back.
05:19There's such a sense of familiarity and homeness to the station.
05:23And I can't wait to get back to work.
05:25But just a big shout-out to all the folks who got us up here for NASA,
05:28our friends at SpaceX for a building.
05:30A great little spaceship and a little taste of the flexibility this morning
05:33that we'll be expecting over the next six months.
05:36I know that our flight's going to go by in a blink of an eye
05:38and really anxious to start.
05:40Thanks for the very warm welcome from Crew 7.
05:45I second everything that Matt and Mike has said.
05:49And I just want to thank my family as well for being patient with me.
05:53And I made it here.
05:57I'm a lot of friends.
05:58Hi everyone.
05:58Good morning from the orbit.
05:58Well, we've been here.
06:00The flight was quite a bit slow, so I hope the future will be like this.
06:07I'm gonna give a big shout-out to all the teams.
06:18Well, 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.
06:40All right, thanks, Station.
06:42For all of that, I 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, and we're all smiling down here.
06:50All right, Station, we are now resuming operational communications.
07:08And there you have it.
07:10Crew 8 is officially on board the International Space Station
07:13and 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 atop 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 Matthew Dominick,
07:48Michael 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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