Crew-3 docking replay

Relive the moment the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, Endurance, docked to the International Space Station with ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer and his NASA colleagues Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron on board.

Docking took place at 01:10 CET (00:10 GMT) Friday 12 November, around 22 hours after Crew-3 was launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.

Crew Dragon docking is autonomous. Once docked, astronauts on Endeavour and aboard the Space Station conduct standard leak checks and equalise pressure between the two spacecraft before the hatch is opened.

Crew-3’s arrival on board the International Space Station marks the official start of Matthias’s first space mission “Cosmic Kiss”. Over the next six months, Matthias will support over 35 European and many more international experiments in human research, biology, materials science, fluid physics, environmental science and radiation, and technology.

For more information on science and operations Matthias will carry out in space, view the Cosmic Kiss mission brochure in English or German. Regular updates will also be provided on the ESA Cosmic Kiss mission page, ESA Exploration blog and Matthias’s Twitter, Facebook and Instagram channels.