For the first time since the ISS began operations 25 years ago, all eight of the space station’s docking ports are occupied, NASA said in a statement. The rare, orbital full house occurred on the reentry of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL capsule, which last week was temporarily moved aside by a robotic arm to make room for the arrival of the three-person astronaut crew.
make room for more
There are currently eight spacecraft docked to the ISS: two SpaceX Dragon vehicles, Cygnus XL, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) HTV-X1, two Roscosmos Soyuz crew spacecraft, and two Progress cargo ships.
NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Roscosmos astronauts Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev arrived at the space station on Nov. 27 aboard Russia’s Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft for an eight-month mission. Before the arrival of the Soyuz crew capsule, NASA Mission Control used Canadarm2 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 cargo ship was later attached to the ISS, where it will remain in orbit until March 2026. The capsule is loaded with 11,000 pounds of trash and unnecessary cargo, which will burn up in Earth’s atmosphere for disposal.
However, the eight-spacecraft party will end before NASA takes out the trash. Russia’s second docked capsule, Soyuz MS-27, is scheduled to return NASA astronaut Johnny Kim and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Razikov and Alexey Zubritsky on December 8. The spacecraft will launch from the Prichal module and land in Kazakhstan with a parachute.
As Soyuz MS-27 is scheduled to return to Earth, it is unclear 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. It is the only Russian launch site capable of delivering astronauts and cargo to the ISS, and it is currently not operational until the damage is repaired.
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