Two Americans, a Russian and an Emirati arrived at the ISS Queer soldier in the war in Ukraine: “Sexual orientation plays no role in the war”

Two Americans, a Russian and an Emirati have arrived at the International Space Station. The “Crew Dragon” with the four astronauts docked at the ISS on Friday, according to live images from the American space agency Nasa.

The spacecraft hovered 20 meters from the station for a while until a software bug was fixed. Then, with a slight delay, at 07:40 CET, first contact was made. The space capsule of Elon Musk’s private aerospace company SpaceX launched Thursday from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida.

This is the repeated time since the start of the Russian offensive war in Ukraine about a year ago and the resulting immense tensions between the US and Russia, astronauts from both countries have flown into space together. The start was actually scheduled for Monday, but had to be canceled and postponed at short notice due to problems with the ignition system.

Premiere for three astronauts

The “Crew-6” that has now flown to the ISS consists of Stephen Bowen, Warren Hoburg, Andrei Fedjajew and Sultan al-Nijadi, who will remain in space for about six months. Hoburg, Fedjajew and Al-Nijadi are in space for the first time, for Bowen it is the fourth space flight.

On board the ISS, they meet cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev, Dmitri Petelin and Anna Kikina, NASA astronauts Frank Rubio, Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, and Koichi Wakata from Japan. The “Crew-5” – Mann, Cassada, Wakata and Kikina – should fly back to Earth in a few days.

return delayed

For Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio, the return was delayed because a leak was discovered in the Soyuz capsule that came to the ISS in September. According to experts, it was created by the impact of a micrometeorite.

That’s why a replacement spacecraft arrived at the ISS this weekend, with which the three will now probably return to Earth in September – instead of March as originally planned. (sda/dpa)