Dragon Riders　　　

SpaceX sent four astronauts including Japan's Noguchi Soichi to the International Space Station on Nov. 15 in the first full-fledged taxi flight for NASA by a private company. The firm's Dragon capsule arrived on Nov. 16 at the space station, the astronauts' home until spring.

The capsule docked at the space station after a 27-hour, completely automated flight from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The linkup occurred 422 kilometers above Idaho.

"I'm happy we could reach this point where the ship's docking has been a success. We the crew have faced many difficulties, but through complete concentration we've overcome them. We want to share with everyone all the moving moments of our coming half-year in space. All for one, Crew-1 for all!" said Noguchi.

This is the second astronaut mission for SpaceX, but the first time Elon Musk's company has delivered a crew for a full half-year station stay. The two crew on a test flight earlier this year stayed on the space station for two months. NASA turned to private companies including SpaceX to carry cargo and crew to the space station, after the Space Shuttle fleet was retired in 2011.

Noguchi, who became the first person in almost 40 years to leave Earth on three types of spacecraft, and three Americans will remain at the orbiting lab until their replacements arrive on another Dragon in April 2021. They joined two Russians and one American who flew to the space station last month from Kazakhstan.

The four named their capsule Resilience to provide hope and inspiration during an especially difficult year for the whole world. While on the space station, Noguchi, 55, will conduct tests on the Japanese Experiment Module Kibo using induced pluripotent stem cells — a technology that could be applied to generating human organs — and release miniature satellites into space, among other duties. (Compiled from AP and Mainichi reports)

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