ISS Reaches Full Capacity: All Eight Docking Ports Occupied for the First Time
HOUSTON – December 1, 2023 – The International Space Station (ISS) is experiencing an unprecedented situation: all eight of its docking ports are currently occupied by spacecraft, NASA announced today. This marks the first time in the station’s 25-year history that it has reached full capacity, hosting a record ten astronauts.
The rare ”full house” occurred following the reattachment of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL capsule, which was briefly relocated by the station’s robotic arm to accommodate the arrival of a three-person crew last week.
Currently docked at the ISS are two SpaceX Dragon vehicles, the Cygnus XL, JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) HTV-X1, two Roscosmos Soyuz crew spacecraft, and two Progress cargo ships.
On November 27, NASA astronaut chris Williams and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev arrived aboard Russia’s Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft for an eight-month mission. Prior to their docking, NASA mission control utilized Canadarm 2 to temporarily move Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus-23 cargo spacecraft.
The Cygnus capsule,packed with 11,000 pounds of trash and unneeded cargo,will remain docked until March 2026,at which point it will be released to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.
This crowded configuration will shift on December 8, when Russia’s Soyuz MS-27 is scheduled to return NASA astronaut Jonny Kim and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky to Earth, parachuting to a landing in Kazakhstan.
However, the future of Russian ISS access remains uncertain.Following the launch of Soyuz MS-28, a structure collapsed at site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome – Russia’s only launch site capable of delivering astronauts and cargo to the ISS – and is currently undergoing repairs. It is indeed unclear when Russia will be able to launch another spacecraft to the station.
