SpaceX capsule with four astronauts gets an eyeful of NZ as it closes in on space station

Nasa astronauts, from left, Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, and Michael Hopkins and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi before their flight. Photo / AP

SpaceX's newly launched capsule with four astronauts got a special view of Godzone as they closed in today on the International Space Station, their new home until spring.

The Dragon capsule was due at the orbiting lab, following a 27-hour, completely automated flight from Nasa's Kennedy Space Centre.

As they prepared for the space station linkup, the Dragon crew beamed down live window views of New Zealand and a brilliant blue, cloud-streaked Pacific 400km below.

"Looks amazing," Mission Control radioed from SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California.

"It looks amazing from up here, too," Commander Mike Hopkins replied.

Live view of Earth from Crew Dragon → https://t.co/SpsRVRJyB1 pic.twitter.com/4DXHmXL9DS

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 16, 2020

This is the second astronaut mission for SpaceX. But it's the first time Elon Musk's company is delivering a crew for a full half-year station stay. The two-pilot test flight earlier this year lasted two months.

The three Americans and one Japanese astronaut will remain at the orbiting lab until their replacements arrive on another Dragon in April. And so it will go, with SpaceX — and eventually Boeing — transporting astronauts to and from the station for Nasa.

This regular taxi service got underway with yesterday's launch.

Hopkins and his crew — Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Japan's Soichi Noguchi — will join two Russians and one American who flew to the space station last month from Kazakhstan. Glover will be the first African-American to move in for a long haul. A first-time flyer, Glover was presented his gold astronaut pin.

🐉 Enter the Crew Dragon. At 4:48 p.m. EST (9:48 p.m. UTC), the NASA @SpaceX Crew-1 astronauts give you a LIVE tour of their spacecraft Resilience: https://t.co/z1RgZwQkWS pic.twitter.com/0kn4gRnFma

— NASA (@NASA) November 16, 2020

The four named their capsule Resilience to provide hope and inspiration during an especially difficult year for the whole world. They broadcast a tour of their capsule, showing off the touchscreen controls and storage areas.

Walker said it was a little tighter for them than for the two astronauts on the test flight.

"We sort of dance around each other to stay out of each other's way," she said.

For the launch, Nasa kept guests to a minimum because of coronavirus, and even Musk had to stay away after tweeting that he "most likely" had an infection.

He was replaced in his official launch duties by SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell, who assured reporters he was still very much involved with the action, although remotely.

- AP