Eight spacecrafts assembled at the same time, the International Space Station was full for the first time in 27 years of operation

With the successful docking of the Russian Soyuz MS-28 manned spacecraft, the International Space Station achieved a historic breakthrough——For the first time, all eight docking ports are occupied simultaneously, marking the culmination of the space station’s on-orbit docking capabilities in its 27 years of operation.peak. In order to coordinate the docking of the new manned spacecraft, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) temporarily adjusted an unmanned supply ship "Cygnus"-23 through a robotic arm last week to make way for the spacecraft "Soyuz MS-28" carrying three astronauts from the United States and Russia.

After the docking mission of the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft was completed, Cygnus-23 was reinstalled back to the docking port on the Earth-facing side of the joint orbital segment.

The "Cygnus" series is a medium-sized cargo spacecraft of the American Northrop Grumman Company. It is used to regularly transport supplies to the space station and is responsible for bringing back waste. It is one of the main forces in the logistics supply of the space station.

at present,Russia has two "Soyuz" spacecraft docked at the space station. The other five spacecraft parked at the space station include two Russian "Progress" unmanned supply ships, Progress-92 and Progress-93; the Japanese cargo spacecraft HTV-X1; and the two "Dragon" spacecraft of the American Space Exploration Technology Company (SpaceX)..

Fortunately, the "full" state will be short-lived. The Soyuz MS-27 manned spacecraft is ready to return three astronauts to Earth. By then, the number of spacecraft parked at the space station will be reduced to seven.