For the first time in International Space Station history, all eight docking ports aboard the orbital outpost are occupied following the reinstallation of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft to the Earth-facing port of the station’s Unity module. The eight spacecraft attached to the complex are: two SpaceX Dragons, Cygnus XL, JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) HTV-X1, two Roscosmos Soyuz crew spacecraft, and two Progress cargo ships.
For the first time in International Space Station history, all eight docking ports aboard the orbital outpost are occupied
It’s mostly good timing that there is a Russian crew handover, meaning there are 2x Soyuz capsules, and 3 different cargo vehicles on the US/International side. The only real newcomer involved that hasn’t been doing this for years is the Japanese HTV-X cargo vehicle, but Japan previously had the HTV cargo vehicle service ISS.
It’s mostly good timing that there is a Russian crew handover, meaning there are 2x Soyuz capsules, and 3 different cargo vehicles on the US/International side. The only real newcomer involved that hasn’t been doing this for years is the Japanese HTV-X cargo vehicle, but Japan previously had the HTV cargo vehicle service ISS.