The crew of the Dragon ship, which has already moved into the so -called The ISS contactless zone is on the right track to the start of the docking process. The capsule reached the WayPoint 0 point, located 400 m from the station, where he is waiting for permission to continue traveling to Waypoint 1, a more 200 m away. The plan assumes that Dragon will reach there at 12.09 Polish time.
AX-4 mission astronauts They put on vacuum spacecraft on each other again. They are to ensure safety if the Dragon cabin was broken. Astronauts in Dragon already have connectivity to the space station and see it from the capsules' windows.
Docking is supervised by the Team of the Flight Control Center of the International Space Station at the Space Center Lyndon B. Johnson NASA in Houston, Texas (USA). On the other hand, members of the 73th NASA expedition, Nichole Ayers and Anne McClain are responsible for the ISS.
As he explained in the ongoing broadcast of NASA, Axiom Space and SpaceX communication specialist Joseph Zakrzewski, on the road of Dragon to the ISS there are many points to which the capsule moves thanks to the maneuvers of 16 Draco engines. This allows you to synchronize the orbit of the ship and the station. In each of the points to which the capsule is to approach in turn, docking can be interrupted if there were problems with the engines or control of the capsule.
The “beak” or “nose” of the capsule opened yesterday, just after separation with the second part of the Falcon 9 rocket, revealing four engines and docking port.
According to plan Docking is to start at 12.30 Eastern European time, the procedure is to be completed 13 minutes later. After leveling the pressure between the capsule and the hatch station, they will be opened at approx. 14.10 Polish time. At 14.40 a ceremony of welcoming the AX-4 crew is planned on board ISS.
