It’s getting busy in low Earth orbit, with a record number of spaceships now attached to the International Space Station while a total of 10 astronauts occupy the orbital lab.
For the first time since the ISS began operation 25 years ago, all eight of the space station’s docking ports are occupied, NASA revealed in a statement. The rare, orbital full house took place upon the reattachment of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL capsule, which was temporarily moved aside by a robotic arm to make room for the arrival of a three-person astronaut crew last week.
Make room for more
The eight spacecraft currently docked to the ISS are: two SpaceX Dragon vehicles, Cygnus XL, JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) HTV-X1, two Roscosmos Soyuz crew spacecraft, and two Progress cargo ships.
NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev arrived at the space station on November 27 on board Russia’s Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft for an eight-month mission. Before the arrival of the Soyuz crew capsule, NASA mission control used Canadarm 2 to move Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus-23 cargo spacecraft out of the way to make room for the astronaut crew to dock.
Northrop Grumman’s expendable freighter was later reattached to the ISS, where it will remain in orbit until March 2026. The capsule is packed with 11,000 pounds of trash and unneeded cargo, which will burn up in Earth’s atmosphere for disposal.
The eight-spaceship party will come to an end before NASA takes out the trash, however. Russia’s second docked capsule, the Soyuz MS-27, is scheduled to return NASA astronaut Jonny Kim and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky on December 8. The spacecraft will undock from the Prichal module and parachute to a landing in Kazakhstan.
As Soyuz MS-27 is scheduled for its return to Earth, it’s not clear when Russia will be able to launch another spacecraft to the ISS. Following the launch of Soyuz MS-28, a structure collapsed on the launchpad at Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. This is the only Russian launch site capable of delivering astronauts and cargo to the ISS, and it is currently out of commission until the damage is repaired.
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