太空人創紀錄飛抵國際太空站
Four astronauts have arrived at the International Space Station after the fastest American crewed flight ever made to the orbiting laboratory.
The Crew-13 mission blasted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida on the first of October, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Less than eight hours later, their Crew Dragon capsule, named Grace, docked with the station – about five hours quicker than the previous American record. The overall record, however, still belongs to a Russian Soyuz flight, which reached the station in around three hours in 2020.
The crew is commanded by NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins, who became the first NASA astronaut to fly on a Dragon spacecraft twice. She is joined by NASA pilot Luke Delaney, Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk and Russian cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov.
Despite concerns about the weather, the launch went ahead on schedule, on the same day that NASA celebrated its 68th birthday. After the rocket lifted off, its reusable first stage returned to Earth and landed back at Cape Canaveral.
The new arrivals briefly brought the number of people on board the station to eleven. They are expected to spend about six months in orbit, carrying out scientific research and maintenance work, before returning to Earth early next year.
四名太空人抵達國際太空站，創下美國載人太空船飛往太空站最快的紀錄。
「Crew-13」任務於 10 月 1 日搭乘 SpaceX 的獵鷹 9 號火箭，從佛羅里達州卡納維爾角升空。不到八小時，名為「葛蕾絲號」的龍飛船就和太空站完成對接，比美國先前的紀錄快了大約五小時。不過，整體紀錄仍屬於俄羅斯：2020 年，一艘聯盟號太空船只花了大約三小時就抵達太空站。
這次任務的指揮官是 NASA 太空人潔西卡．沃特金斯，她也成為第一位兩度搭乘龍飛船的 NASA 太空人。同行的還有 NASA 駕駛員路克．德蘭尼、加拿大太空人約書亞．庫崔克，以及俄羅斯太空人謝爾蓋．捷捷里亞特尼科夫。
發射當天天氣一度讓人擔心，但最後仍按原定時間升空，而那天正好是 NASA 成立 68 週年。升空後，可重複使用的第一節火箭返回地面，降落在卡納維爾角。
新成員到來後，太空站上的人數一度達到 11 人。他們預計在軌道上停留約六個月，進行科學研究和維修工作，明年初返回地球。