The “Dragon” must move to the International Space Station

Rollout of Boeing and NASA's Starliner spacecraft. Photo: EPA/Cristóbal Herrera-Ulashkiewicz

Washington: There will be an International Space Station premiere next week: For the first time, the Starliner spacecraft will dock with astronauts aboard the space station. “Crew Dragon” now had to make room and re-park the car.

Before the Starliner's scheduled arrival on Wednesday, the Dragon capsule, currently docked at the International Space Station, had to make way. NASA astronauts Matt Dominik, Mike Barratt and Janet Epps, as well as astronaut Alexander Grebenkin, lowered the capsule from the International Space Station for the first time on Thursday, after which it independently reconnected with the station at another docking point, NASA announced.

She added that this is the twenty-eighth transfer in the history of the International Space Station and the fourth with the Dragon capsule. Dominik, Barratt, Epps and Grebenkin – the so-called “Crew 8” – arrived at the ISS in March with the “Crew Dragon” and are scheduled to return to Earth in the fall.

However, first, the crisis-plagued Starliner spacecraft is scheduled to arrive at the International Space Station for the first time on Wednesday — and that will require the docking station previously occupied by Dragon. NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sonny Williams are scheduled to launch on the first crewed test flight of the Starliner spacecraft on Monday (local time).

The “Starliner” developed and built by Boeing completed the first successful unmanned flight to the International Space Station in May 2022 and spent four days there. In the future, it will transport astronauts to the International Space Station as an alternative to SpaceX's “Crew Dragon” capsule. However, due to a number of problems, the project fell far behind schedule.