For the 1st time ever, 8 spacecraft are docked to the International Space Station

For the first time in its history, all eight docking ports on the International Space Station (ISS) are fully occupied, NASA announced.

The crowded station required NASA’s robotic Canadarm2 to temporarily move the Northrop Grumman Cygnus-23 cargo spacecraft to make room for the Thanksgiving Day arrival of the Soyuz MS-28 crew carrying Chris Williams, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, and Sergei Mikaev for an eight-month mission.

Other spacecraft currently docked include Soyuz MS-27 (departing Dec. 8), Progress-92 and Progress-93 cargo vehicles, Japan’s HTV-X1, and two SpaceX Dragon capsules—CRS-33 cargo and Crew-11 with astronauts Zena Cardman, Michael Fincke, Kimiya Yui, and Oleg Platonov.

The Crew-11 Dragon and other visiting spacecraft occupy the remaining ports on the Harmony module, which has six total ports, three of which are used for other modules, Space.com has reported.

This record occupancy highlights the ISS’s expanded capacity since its construction began in 1998 and the station’s continued role as a hub for international crewed and cargo missions.