SpaceX crew arrive at International Space Station in step to bring stranded NASA astronauts back to Earth
SpaceX's Falcon 9 vessel has arrived at the International Space Station to retrieve NASA astronauts Sunita 'Suni' Williams and Barry 'Butch' Wilmore.
The two space travelers reached the International Space Station last June with an expected eight-day stay. Unfortunately, when their return craft was judged unsafe, the astronauts had to remain for nine months more than planned.
SpaceX Dragon spacecraft launched with Crew-10 from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday (March 14) to bring the astronauts back to Earth. NASA announced earlier today (March 16) that NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov had reached the International Space Station.
"The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft connected to the space complex at 12:04 a.m. EDT, while the station was about 260 statute miles above the Atlantic Ocean," NASA stated. A later update confirmed the hatches between the space station and the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft opened at 1:35am EDT.
"McClain, Ayers, Onishi, and Peskov received warm greetings from the Expedition 72 crew, including NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Don Petitt, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Aleksandr Gorbunov, Alexey Ovchinin, and Ivan Vagner," the report added.
SpaceX and NASA shared live coverage of the docking on Twitter. The video shows crew members hugging in zero gravity. McClain expressed: "Crew-10 had a great trip here and I cannot express the huge happiness of our crew when we saw the space station for the first time through the window. That journey is so amazing. It's hard to describe in words."
Williams said to Mission Control: "It was a fantastic day. Great to see our friends get here."
SpaceX notes the crew will help return Butch and Suni to Earth and also "conduct new research to prepare for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and to benefit humanity on Earth" during their stay.
Reports suggest a two-day handover will occur before Wilmore and Williams head back to Earth – possibly extended if safety conditions for Earth atmosphere re-entry aren't met.
ISS program manager Dana Weigel told reporters, as quoted by the BBC: "Weather always must cooperate, so we'll be patient if conditions aren't favorable."
