Congress. Watch washington journal live at 7 00 a. M. Eastern Tuesday Morning. Be sure to join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments, Text Messages and tweets. Spacex crew dragon is making contact with the International Space station this evening. We expect the docking to begin around 11 00 p. M. Eastern once that occurs, there will be a welcoming ceremony for the four astronauts on board. We also expect a News Conference with nasa officials in the early or morning hours. This is live coverage on cspan. We will next move through wave. 1, 220 meters away directly in front of the docking port. Where dragon docked steering demo one and demo two. We will be looking for the go to keep out the sphere of 200 meter radius, and invisible line around the station that helps flight controllers monitor vehicles they approach and depart the International Space station. Such a cool view. Seeing dragon with the canada arm from the station. The earth in the background. We use to use the canada arm to capture dragon before it was configured into this design, the new crew dragon designed. It docs autonomously. Vehicles,of visiting we have to use the canada arm and the astronauts will reach out and grapple the spacecraft it, and flight controllers on the ground will attach it to the poor are the International Space station. But dragon is fully autonomous. The astronauts are strapped in their seats, monitoring the mission, awaiting the milestones as we move through wave point one. Should be coming up in just a couple minutes. And continuing the approach to the lastt two and checkpoint before we move in for docking. Crew dragon approaching. Copies. On and we were ready for that as well. We are about 10 minutes away from waypoint one. That is where dragon will swing up and out in front of the station. That will bring us about 220 meters away from station. Which will bring us to what we have called the docking access, which essentially means we will be right in front of the docking port. We dont have the hold at areoint one, as long as we clear with a 200 meter radiance radius around the International Space station. Helps view the departure or arrival of visiting vehicles. Hawkins and glover monitoring the mission. Dragon is flying autonomously. Away. About 300 meters closing in on just about one meter per second. Go untilt 80 meters to one. Int amazing view of the International Space station. That is from the cameras aboard crew dragon, getting a good look at each other. Kind of cool to see them both looking at each other as they approach each other. Absolutely. And the crew on board also monitoring on their three display panels in front of them. Autonomous, so they really dont have to do much except for enjoy the ride. Watch on those display panels where they are at during this approach here. You can also see the International Space station on the far right and far left panel. They are getting really the same view that we are here. Im sure they are pretty excited about making it to their new home in space. Once they reach waypoint one, they dont have to stop. It will be the 220 meter point. Then the next stop will be waypoint 2, 20 meters away from the International Space station. Dragon will focus on aligning the docking system with the international station based on that it will be about five minutes until contact and capture. We will be looking for that call. The crew hands off to meters before contact. That means the crew is not commanding the vehicle. They have not been at this time, but the vehicle can still have an abort at that time. Not receiving dragon to data from pts. Is that expected . Copy that. Can go ahead and fix that by cycling it from the ground or perform a test, whichever is your preference. Copy, we are putting in work now. Kate reubens, who is on the International Space station, currently the only american on the International Space station, is joined by her russian cosmonaut friends. Welcoming four new crew members to the orbiting laboratory. She is monitoring the approach of crew dragon. Shes also not commanding the approach. She will not be using the canada arm to grapple the vehicle that she was working to get some data, and the ground team will recycle that data for her. As we are mentioning, we are discussing, the crew hands off point, the vehicle notes. At that point, the crew will not be commanding anything. However, everything looking healthy on dragon and the International Space station. Members view that you are seeing here is from the station, from the node two docking port that dragon is currently approaching. This is really our first view of both of them in the picture. It gives you a good perspective on how close they are getting to each other. In the lefthand bottom corner, that is the station, and the white dot on the right side of your screen is dragon slowly approaching. We are just under five minutes away from waypoint one, under 280 meters away from the space station. A little more of what we can look for once we do get that to move Halfway Point two, the 20 meter point. We will reach waypoint one first. We have a couple stops before that. We will take about five minutes to get in toward the station from waypoint two. Then after that five minutes, you hear the call and we will be first. For soft capture there are also rotary spring dampers that will soft in the contact from crew dragon to the International Space station, and that soft capture ring will retract. It will retract until sensors indicate it is time for the hooks to drive and create a hard capture, which will firmly secured dragon to the station. Hook and takeg about five minutes. The full seal will be achieved with 12 hard capture hooks. This is from station, i see data on the port. Thanks. Copy. We are just about 30 minutes with from docking currently dragging approaching waypoint one. Approximatelys 220 meters away from station. Remains rd kate kate rubins, who is monitoring the mission and arrival of crew dragon. Term that stands for rendezvous and proximity program. That is giving her insight into dragons position and how it is moving in toward the International Space station. She will have some work to do once dragon arrives, but not until it gets there. But once dragon arrives, the node two hatch where there docking is currently closed on the station side spacex on the big luke approach one and soft capture ring extension will begin shortly. Dragon will continue approach to waypoint two. Dragon copies. ,ront capture will start here the first one. Crystal clear view of dragon as they get the word that everything is still looking good with the systems and they will be moving through waypoint one to waypoint two and they can expect the capture ring to extend and began preparing them for docking. We are about 240 meters away, just about a minute away from passing through waypoint one. Can seeo close that you the forward bulkhead thrusters on dragon. Four circlesse that you see in the ring where the nose cone is open on the top of dragon. Dragon continuing the slow and steady approach to the International Space station. Every single maneuver very dim deliberate when we have two vehicles this close in space, about 226 meters away. Again, what you are seeing on the lefthand screen is the view from the International Space station, looking at dragon on your righthand screen. That is a camera view. Loop. Cex on the big returning shortly. Dragon copies. And we have passed waypoint one. To 13 metersout away from the International Space station. Meters away from the International Space station. Heard speaking with crew dragon to expect reconfiguration for visiting vehicles that establishes communications between crew dragon and the International Space station. Now we passed through waypoint one. We are about 10 minutes away from waypoint two. Once we approach waypoint two, we will do a go no goal poll for docking. Again, around 30 minutes away from docking here. Depending on the timeline and when we reach each one of these way to we are on our waypoint two which will bring us about 20 meters in front of the space station. We moved right through that 200 meter invisible line around the International Space station that helps flight controllers monitor visiting spacecraft, but we will have to hold at waypoint two, meter mark. They will conduct final checks and prepare for arrival of the International Space station, a very clear view from crew dragon. It is incredible. And again, this is a view looking at dragon from station from the node two forward point. That dragon will be docking today. Of 1. 104. Two i have just connected. Copy all, kate. Flight team to Mission Control houston, continuing to check that rendezvous proximity operation. Phase two, we will reset and see if that works. Thank you. They are resetting some of the data for kate rubins. Notminder, she is commanding any part of dragons arrival, but she is monitoring, looking for some data in that program. Again, we are on our way to waypoint two, which will be 20 meters away from the station. Waypoint two, the vehicle will focus on aligning with the docking adapter, so preparing for docking. Poll will be a go no goal prior to initiating that soft capture approach. The same view we were looking at earlier and you could see how much closer crew dragon has gotten in the short time. Ince we last received it having moved through waypoint one through that time period. A little more about what kate rubins will do once crew dragon docs. Hatch is closed during the docking. For aubins will check leak and open further pressurized adapter and also manually pressurize the vestibule, the area between the the crew dragon hatch. The a hatch is currently exposed space. Vacuum of that also has a docking target on it that allows dragon to align itself with port. Once that pressurization is rubins will be able to open the a pass hatch to let air in, a slow process. She will open a valve on the a pass hatch to let the air in and will hold for thermal stabilization before doing leak checks in the vestibule. We want to make sure there are not any fluctuating temperatures giving us misleading signals on what the pressure is in the vestibule. We will conduct the lead check for those. In the meantime, the crew is drying and sewing their suits in the thermal stabilization and their equipment. Kate will open the a pass hatch and remove the docking target, almost two hours post docking. Dragon look for the hatch to be opened. Spacex on the loop. Link reconfiguration is complete. Soft capture ring extension is also complete. We are planning to hold momentarily at waypoint two. At that point, we will be asking for your input on lighting conditions and your go to proceed. Do remember your visors are not required to be down until our final approach. Dragon copies all and we will be holding momentarily waypoint two and give you a lighting check at that point. As you heard, we are on our way to waypoint 2, 20 meters away from the station and we will hold and do some checks to ensure we are ok to approach for did hearnd we confirmation the soft capture ring is extended and ready for docking. A few minutes ago, we heard commonscussing c2v2, communication for visiting vehicles. They said they would reconfigure and got good confirmation it has been reconfigured. Those are bidirectional confirmations between the station and crew dragon. Station houston on two for kate. We are still troubleshooting the rpop issue. 17 and welcome to sc the main computer. Copy all. We will get it working. Houstonon control, checking back in with kate rubins aboard the station, who is working to monitor crew dragons arrival. As we mentioned, she is not commanding anything crew dragon is doing and neither are the crew themselves. It is completely autonomous. She is trying to monitor some of that data. Key members in Mission Control houston are going to try and pop systeme the r come around a view system, rendezvous and proximity operations program, from the ground. You can see on your screen, again, this is a view from station from the node two point that dragon will be docking to. You can see the sunlight hitting dragon as it gets closer and. Loser starting to get a little bit darker outside as well. Thats because the International Space station and crew dragon are approaching orbital nighttime. They are in daylight for 45 minutes and nighttime for 45 minutes, circling the globe every 90 minutes, currently flying 260 miles over the Pacific Ocean. You are looking at a live view of Mission Control at spacex headquarters in california. If you notice, we have lost video temporarily of crew dragon as it approaches the International Space station, but it is really no surprise to us. It is called the handover, tracking data and relay satellite system. Teams on the ground are able to track when the space station and the cruel move in and out of the handover periods and we expect to regain Video Communications with the space station shortly. In the meantime, it continues, crew dragon continues approach to waypoint two. We have the views back already. As you mentioned, you can really see the four forward bulkhead thrusters the closer we get. If you look at the details of how close we are, approaching waypoint two which will be 20 meters in front of the station. You can see it so close up in the last few. The last view. On space runuston two. Ssc 17 back and running for you. We are working on four now. In addition, let us know when your review is complete and you are ready for docking. Copy, and i saw ssc working, giving me good range. Copy that. We will take a look. Thank you for the extra info. We have now reached waypoint two so we are holding this position. You have a good dragon docking system view on ssc 17. I have a good out the window view so i am comfortable and my review is complete. Copy all, thank you. News from kate rubins, she has the data shes looking for and a great view of crew dragon out the window as well. She has given her go for them to depart waypoint two and move into the International Space station. As a reminder, we moved directly through waypoint one, putting us directly in front of the docking port. You can see it here. Forwardthe note two port where dragon docks. Dragon, this is spacex on the big loop. Big around his go is go for approach two. At this point, please confirm the lighting conditions are acceptable to proceed, and let us know if you are go for approach two and docking. Spacex, this is dragon on the big loop. The lighting is actually getting worse. Ida butve a view of the we do not have a view of the docking target. Dragon, spacex, we are copy. We have six minutes since sunset. Would you like to hold for those six minutes or do you feel comfortable proceeding . Standby. Spacex, we will go ahead and hold for those six minutes. We copy. Hold. The crew dragon has opted to hold at waypoint two for the to get a better view of the docking target. It is on the International Space station. They can hold here and that will give the opportunity for sunset to come aboard the International Space station and crew dragon. They wont have any all shadows theyhey can have ought piloting,ving any crew dragon, it is autonomous. Vehiclet to see so the can make its approach to node two. And the ground is go for docking, but we are just waiting for us to get a little more light so that dragon can actually see where it is going to autonomously dock. I see the target on node two so it can make the soft capture accurately. Another one of those satellite handovers we just discussed as well. We should get Video Communications. Right there, coming back. Dragon is holding at waypoint two, 20 meters away from the International Space station. They are holding until we reach sunset and orbital nighttime for the spacecraft. Once that happens, they will proceed in towards node two. It should take about five minutes. As a reminder, waypoint two is about 20 meters away from station. We are on the docking access and dragon will be aligning itself with the docking point. We are just holding for some sunlight. Continuing for another few minutes. The space station has crossed the line between day and nighttime on earth. They are east of hawaii right now in the Pacific Ocean and waiting for the sun to set on orbit and crew dragon will be able to use infrared cameras to spot the docking target on the a pass hatch on node two, and they will be able to proceed, leaving waypoint two, making a five minute journey approximately two docking. To i should correct what i said earlier, they are waiting for the sun to go down so they dont have any shadows so dragon can actually see the early and locate and align itself with the docking port. As a reminder, we had a con mission that the soft capture ring extended. That will be the first part of capture. There are also rotary spring dampers will soft in the contact soft in the contact they do make contact with the International Space station, and then the ring will retract until the sensors indicate for the hooks to drive. We are looking for 12 hooks to only secure dragon firmly secure dragon to the International Space station. The entire process should take about 30 minutes. We will be standing by the entire time to make sure all of that goes smoothly. Foreverything looking good crew dragon, holding 20 meters away from the International Space station. And it looks like we might be about one minute away from sunset. So we should be hearing a call that they are ready to proceed. Again, there is no rush. Th