The SpaceX Crew-10, which consists of four astronauts, arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday to rescue the two NASA astronauts who have been stranded on the space station for approximately nine months. The stranded astronauts are now expected to return to Earth later this week.
According to Fox Business, the astronauts aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule docked at the International Space Station at 12:04 a.m. on Sunday. The capsule docking took place roughly 29 hours after the spacecraft’s 7:03 p.m. launch on Friday from the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Fox Business reported that the SpaceX Crew-10 consisted of NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, and Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi. The outlet noted that the four SpaceX crew members are expected to remain at the International Space Station for approximately six months.
According to Fox Business, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are currently expected to leave the International Space Station on a different SpaceX capsule alongside Nick Hague, a NASA astronaut, and Alexsandr Gorbunov, a Russian cosmonaut, as early as 4 a.m. on Wednesday.
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A video shared on X, formerly Twitter, by NASA’s Johnson Space Center shows the moment the Space X Crew-10 entered the International Space Station and met the other astronauts.
NASA’s Johnson Space Center tweeted, “The hatch of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft opened March 16 at 1:35 a.m. ET and the members of Crew-10 entered the @Space_Station with the rest of their excited Expedition 72 crew.”
In another video shared on social media, Williams, who was stranded on the International Space Station with Wilmore over the past nine months, told Misson Control, “Houston, thank you for tuning in this early morning. It was a wonderful day. Great to see our friends arrive. So, thank you so much.”
Williams and Wilmore have been stranded on the International Space Station following issues with their spacecraft after the astronauts arrived at the space station last June. According to Fox News, the astronauts were stranded after the Boeing Starliner experienced “issues with the spacecraft reaction control thrusters” as well as “helium leaks” while the spacecraft was docking at the International Space Station.