Good morning.
The International Space Station is speaking.
I am Oleg Kononenko, ISS Expedition 58, Commander from Russia;
David Saint-Jacques, Flight Engineer from Canada; Anne McClain,
Flight Engineer from U.S.A. On behalf of my crew,
I would like to persuade the United States of America and the NASA Team to please wait
for this event, the launch and dock of SpaceX Crew Dragon spaceship.
(Unintelligible)…which is this spaceship here on board the International Space Station
and it has become a part of important missions to the U.S.A. Program
and the historical step on our way --
a historical step, a way of human beings beyond maybe
just orbit to the Moon and Mars in the future.
Hello, bonjour. Of course, I’m honoured and privileged to be here on this important day.
We’re standing in Node 2 of the forward end of the Space Station where the space shuttles
used to dock, and now we have a brand new vehicle that came this morning,
a flawless operation, the result of years of work, thousands of people around the world
among many teams, and it was a beautiful thing to see.
Of course, space dock is all about teamwork, collaboration.
Today, we welcome a brand new spacecraft to the Space Station,
the great new addition to the quiver of tools we have, humans, to further space exploration.
This is a good day, first day of a new era for the next generation of space explorers.
Our sincere congratulations to all Earthlings who have enabled the opening of this next chapter
in space exploration, to the International Space Station teams, past and present,
who stand guard 24 hours a day at control centres from Moscow to Japan,
Germany to Houston. Congratulations to the teams at SpaceX and Boeing
who have been working diligently to define what this new era of commercial space
flight will look like. And congratulations to all nations, private space firms and individuals
who wake up every day driven by the magic of exploration. This day belongs to all of us.
Space flight gives us the chance to reflect on the context of our existence.
We’re reminded that we are human before any of our differences,
before all of the lines that are drawn that divide us, and we are reminded that we are at
our best when we are part of something bigger than ourselves.
In 1957, just over 60 years ago, history changed when Russia launched Sputnik,
the world’s first artificial satellite.
People across the globe gathered in backyards and looked up at the night sky,
hoping to catch a glimpse.
A few years later, people of all nationalities gripped hands,
hoping and praying for Yuri Gagarin’s successful launch as he became the first human in space.
And in 1969, every TV across the globe was tuned in as Buzz, Michael and Neil
embarked on the first human journey to the Moon.
Today, human advancement of exploration continues as the first new space vehicle
designed for humans in over 40 years arrived at our front door,
welcomed by our crew of one Russian, one Canadian and one American
who have been living together as family for three months aboard the International Space Station.
These events remind us that we are more alike than different,
that we can be united by a cause that is not based on fear, threat or common enemy,
but rather on a bold endeavour, an insatiable curiosity to go beyond
what is known and to do what has never been done.
We humans were built for exploration and we were built to do it together.
And I think we should show off the newest space vehicle.
On behalf of Ripley, Little Earth, myself and our crew, welcome to the Crew Dragon.
Congratulations to all of the teams who made yesterday’s launch and today’s docking
a success. These amazing feats show us not how easy our mission is but how capable
we are of doing hard things. Welcome to the new era in space flight.
Station, this is Houston ACR. That concludes the event.
Thank you, Expedition 58, for your remarks on this historic day in human space flight.
We are going to resume operational audio com.
It’s so great to hear from the crew of Expedition 58.
We here at SpaceX are obviously honoured to be part of the mission today.
Just a quick recap of today’s mission. Crew Dragon did have a soft capture at 2:51 a.m.
Pacific time, and then a hard capture at 3:02 a.m.
On behalf of both SpaceX and NASA, thank you so much for watching today’s webcast
and your interest in this exciting mission.
Now that Dragon has reached the international space station,
it will spend five or six days docked now.
That’s right. And when it’s time for Dragon to make its way home,
of course we’re going to be showing you its return live,
and we’re going to start from that departure, all the way through recovery,
and that’s going to be on Spacex.com and on NASA TV.
As always, be sure to follow SpaceX and NASA on social media for any real-time updates,
and as the crew is doing stuff throughout the week,
we’ll be posting some of those updates online.
And if you’re interested from hearing more from the crew this morning,
you can always follow their social media accounts as well.
Thanks again so much for watching and sticking around with all of these activities.
It’s a really important moment in space life history and a great moment for the Commercial Crew
Program, SpaceX, NASA and everyone involved. But as always, thank you, the viewer.
We will see you when it’s time for Dragon to come home.
For now, we’re going to go ahead and sign off. Thanks. Thanks, guys.