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Commander Matthew Dominick, pilot Michael Barratt, mission specialists Jeanette Epps and Aleksandr Grebenkin arrived at the International Space Station after docking.

Credit: NASA
Transcript
00:00South Captain confirmed.
00:17And contact confirmed, Dragon made contact with the International Space Station at 1128
00:23P.M. Pacific while flying central over the North Atlantic Ocean just east of Newfoundland.
00:33And now you are seeing a live view inside the Dragon Endeavour spacecraft.
00:39You can see the SpaceX suits that the Crew 8 crew members were wearing for the docking
00:46operations as well as for launch on Sunday, March 3rd.
00:53Crew 8 is currently standing by and they will be ingressing into the International Space
00:57Station just a short time from now.
01:05And there we can see Crew 8 being joyfully welcomed aboard the International Space Station.
01:21First aboard was NASA astronaut Matthew Dominic.
01:25Followed behind him, NASA astronaut Michael Barrett and NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps.
01:31And pulling up the end, we have Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grubinken.
01:50The Crew 8 astronauts now officially a part of Expedition 70 and the other Expedition
01:5770 crew members, giving them hugs and handshakes as they make their way onto the International
02:03Space Station, which will be their home for the next six months as they conduct important
02:08science and research.
02:09Station, this is Houston on Space to Ground 2.
02:16Are you ready for the event?
02:23All right, let's roll.
02:28All right, stand by.
02:31Stand by.
02:34Hey, Andy, sorry about that.
02:37Can you hear me?
02:40Can you hear me?
02:43All right.
02:47Hey, Andy, sorry about that.
02:52Can you give us a little count on the microphone?
02:55We weren't getting the audio down here.
02:58Check.
03:19Okay, just another quick count.
03:241, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
03:38All right, 11, 12, 13, we're ready to roll.
03:45Excellent.
03:46A big, warm welcome to Crew 8 from all of us up here.
03:52Wouldn't you know it, after having made fun of Crew 8 for being or for launching late,
03:57they arrive early to the Space Station and have us scrambling this morning.
04:01But it's absolutely fantastic to see their smiling faces.
04:06Welcome to space, Matt, Jeanette and Alex, and welcome back to space to Mike.
04:15This is also for Crew 7 a slightly bittersweet moment because with their arrival,
04:20it also starts the countdown to our own departure and return to Earth in about a week's time.
04:27But it's great to see Crew 8.
04:29Welcome.
04:30You guys are going to have a fantastic mission, I'm sure of it.
04:34And we look forward to spending the next week in space with you
04:38and for Laurel, Oleg and Nikolai, there you are, a few more weeks.
04:47But welcome to you, and I'll pass the mic to you, Matt.
04:53Thank you so much.
04:54We are, of course, super excited to be here.
04:56And after we saw you call us out yesterday,
04:59we phoned a few friends to expedite things to kind of throw you off guard on purpose.
05:03Or so we hope or wished.
05:05Anyway, we're so excited to be here.
05:06A big thank you to everyone who helped put this together, such a giant team around the world.
05:11And we're excited to be on board and ready to take over the watch.
05:15Over to you, Mike.
05:17Well, first thing, it's just great to be back.
05:19There's such a sense of familiarity and homeness to the station.
05:23And I can't wait to get back to work.
05:25But just a big shout-out to all the folks who got us up here to NASA,
05:28our friends at SpaceX for building a great little spaceship
05:31and a little taste of the flexibility this morning that we'll be expecting over the next six months.
05:36I know that our flight's going to go by in a blink of an eye and I'm really anxious to start.
05:40Thanks for the very warm welcome from Crew 7.
05:46I second everything that Matt and Mike have said.
05:49And I just want to thank my family as well for being patient with me.
05:53And I made it here.
05:57Well, once again, welcome to the National Space Station.
06:21This is an incredible place.
06:23You will have a great time up here just like we did.
06:27We are doing so much exciting science at the moment.
06:30And we look forward to introducing you to all of it.
06:33So once again, welcome, Crew 8.
06:40All right, thanks, station.
06:42For all of that, I can tell you on behalf of us that are left here on the planet,
06:45we are incredibly proud to be a part of this and we're all smiling down here.
06:50All right, station, we are now resuming operational communications.
07:09And there you have it.
07:10Crew 8 is officially onboard the International Space Station
07:13and welcomed by the Expedition 70 crew,
07:16the current space station population to 11 for the next few days.
07:20Crew 8 began their journey to the orbiting laboratory
07:23following a liftoff at 9.53 p.m. Central,
07:2610.53 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, March 3rd,
07:29from launch pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida
07:33atop a Falcon 9 rocket.
07:35Following orbital insertion, the Dragon vehicle carrying Crew 8
07:38completed a series of automatic maneuvers to guide the spacecraft
07:41to the forward-facing port of the station's Harmony module.
07:45The Dragon Endeavor and its four-person crew of NASA astronauts
07:48Matthew Dominick, Michael Barrett, and Jeanette Epps,
07:51and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grubinken,
07:53docked to the International Space Station at 1.28 a.m. Central,
07:572.28 a.m. Eastern on Tuesday, March 5th,
08:00as the space station and Dragon were traveling over the North Atlantic
08:03just east of Newfoundland.

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