Four astronauts have arrived at the International Space Station (ISS), in preparation for bringing two NASA crew members back to Earth after they were unexpectedly left at the station for nine months.
NASA’s Crew-10 mission docked at the ISS in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule yesterday. Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore have been at the International Space Station since June, after a fault with their spacecraft.
“Crew-10 has had a great journey up here, about 28 hours to get back up to the space station. And I cannot tell you the immense joy of our crew when we looked out the window and saw the space station for the first time,” said Crew-10 commander Anne McClain.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule was launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It was initially slated for last Wednesday, but was unable to launch after a problem with the rocket's ground support clamp arm.
Williams and Wilmore are set to leave the ISS on Wednesday, after four days of training Crew-10’s staff.
They will depart with fellow NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, who first reached the ISS in September as part of Crew-9. The Crew-9 mission included two empty seats for Wilmore and Williams, allowing all four to return to Earth on Crew-10’s arrival.
A Boeing Starliner capsule intended for Williams and Wilmore saw a series of issues with its thruster propulsion system. While Williams and Wilmore were originally slated to stay at the ISS for 10 days, the capsule was returned to Earth in September without its crew.
Crew-10 is expected to stay at the ISS for around six months. It includes U.S. astronauts McClain and Nichole Ayers, as well as Russia’s Kirill Peskov and Japan’s Takuya Onishi.
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