NASA's Space X Crew-3 sends first video from up above while chasing ISS for docking

With the successful launch of NASA's Crew-3 mission aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket on Thursday, November 11, the four astronauts are on their way to the International Space Station (ISS). The liftoff transported crew members — Raja Chari, Tom Mashburn, Kayla Barron from NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Matthias Maurer from the Kennedy Space Center at 7.33 am (IST) today. Just a few hours since the launch, the crew has sent its first video shot in space as they chase the ISS for docking. Check it out below.

'Drinking water is fun': Astronaut Mashburn

In the video shared by the space station's Twitter handle, all four astronauts can be seen floating in zero gravity while marvelling over the view the Crew Dragon capsule 'Endurance's video is offering. Pilot Tom Mashburn introduced the rest of the crew in the capsule while mission specialist Kayla Barron was spotted playing with a turtle toy, carried to serve as a zero-gravity indicator. At the time the video was shot, the capsule was crossing the western coast of Australia, but still hundreds of kilometres away from the space station. Currently, the astronauts are on their way to the ISS at a lower orbit, and will eventually catch up with the orbiting laboratory at around 5.40 am on November 12. 

Sharing their flight experience so far, Mashburn said that the flight "was quite smooth compared to a lot of other launches that I've experienced". Moreover, demonstrating how water in a bottle behaves in space, he said that "just drinking water is an enormous amount of fun up here". ESA astronaut Maurer also got to hold of the microphone while floating in the capsule with a digital camera on his other hand, as he said that testing their photography skills to take pictures from space has already begun. 

The astronauts will be joining three astronauts — Mark Vande Hei from NASA and Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov from Russia, taking the total resident number to seven. The Crew-3 members will spend six months aboard the ISS and conduct various experiments during the course of their stay. To watch the live docking tomorrow morning, tune in to NASA TV, the NASA app, the agency's official website or its official YouTube channel. 

(Image: Twitter/@Space_Station)