SpaceX's Crew Dragon Arrives at Space Station to Assist Sunita Williams

SpaceX's Crew Dragon Arrives at Space Station to Assist Sunita Williams
SpaceX's Crew Dragon Arrives at Space Station to Assist Sunita Williams
SpaceX's Crew Dragon Arrives at Space Station to Assist Sunita Williams

 

SpaceX's Crew Dragon Arrives at Space Station to Assist Sunita Williams

Two astronauts who have been on the International Space Station for over nine months moved closer to home on Sunday after a substitute crew successfully docked at the space facility.

Live broadcasts captured the moment the astronauts greeted their fellow crew members with warm embraces in the weightlessness of the station shortly after their SpaceX Crew Dragon reached the site at 0545 GMT.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have remained on the ISS since June when the Boeing Starliner they were testing on its first crewed journey encountered propulsion failures, rendering it unsuitable for their return to Earth.

Williams expressed that it was a "fantastic day" and felt "wonderful to welcome our friends,” just after her colleagues accessed the space lab.

A video shared online by NASA astronaut Don Pettit illustrated the Crew Dragon as it approached the ISS while circling the planet.

The NASA duo's Starliner had landed back on Earth without a crew, avoiding any significant issues further on—resulting in their extended stay, initially projected to last only a few days.

Their extended duration in space far surpassed the typical ISS mission for astronauts, which is about six months.

However, it is still much shorter than the American record of 371 days set by NASA astronaut Frank Rubio aboard the ISS in 2023, and the worldwide record held by Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov for spending 437 consecutive days on the Mir space station.

Nonetheless, the surprising length of their time away from their families—requiring them to receive additional essentials as their initial supplies proved insufficient—drew global attention and compassion.

Wilmore and Williams are now set to prepare for their departure and subsequent splashdown in the ocean off the Florida shoreline, scheduled for no earlier than March 19.

Joining them on the returning Dragon capsule will be NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.

The Crew-10 replacement team launched on Friday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The crew includes NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan’s Takuya Onishi, and Kirill Peskov from Russia. During their time in space, this new team will perform various scientific experiments, such as flammability assessments for upcoming spacecraft designs and studies on the effects of space travel on the human body.

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