Astronauts aboard Crew Dragon Resilience captured the beautiful scenery outside the window en route to the ISS.
In the clip, the black and blue starry sky hovers over the frame captured by astronaut Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). “I didn’t think the scenery could be so beautiful, so my colleague Soichi Noguchi filmed a timelapse of the night view from the Resilience spacecraft and I was very impressed,” said NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins .
Noguchi and Hopkins are among 10 astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) orbit more than 400 kilometers above the ground. They traveled to the ISS station with two other NASA astronauts during the Crew-1 mission conducted by SpaceX in November 2020. The four astronauts, including Noguchi and Hopkins, had to direct the Crew Dragon Resilience to another port of mooring to make room for the next SpaceX missions.
Crew-1 astronauts were the first to reach the ISS via a private spacecraft. Noguchi, who filmed the stars moving outside the Crew Dragon spacecraft, flew to the ISS three times. His first flight was aboard a retired 2011 space shuttle. After that, Noguchi traveled aboard a Soyuz spacecraft operated by the Russian space agency Roscosmos. On his last flight, he became the first Japanese astronaut to fly in a private spacecraft.
SpaceX’s other Crew Dragon is due to arrive at the ISS on April 22, and with cargo flights taking place in the coming weeks, astronauts must clear the docking port. The Resilience train paired with the Harmony module had to move on April 5. NASA’s Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker, along with Noguchi, donned a spacesuit and moved the capsule in a process that took about 45 minutes. The reason they needed to move the ship was to make sure there was enough room for everyone to leave if something went wrong with the ISS.
SpaceX’s second Crew Dragon spacecraft will bring NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough (flight commander) and Megan McArthur (pilot) to the ISS. European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Pesquet and JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide accompanied them on the April 22 flight. On April 28, the Crew-1 mission will end when Hopkins, Walker, Victor Glover, and Soichi Noguchi land near Florida, USA.
