THE SPACEX CREW that will retrieve the two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station has docked with the orbiting laboratory, a live stream of the mission showed.
Astronauts Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore and Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams launched into space aboard Boeing’s Starliner on 5 June for what was meant to be an eight-day stay.
But they have been in space for over 100 days, with their return delayed by problems with the spacecraft’s propulsion system that emerged during the flight there.
Nasa was forced to weigh a radical change in plans, and after weeks of intensive tests on the Starliner’s reliability, the space agency finally decided to return it to Earth without its crew, and to bring the two stranded astronauts back home on SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission.
The Falcon 9 rocket took off at 1.17pm (2.17 pm Irish time) from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Saturday, with the Crew-9 mission aboard a Dragon spacecraft making contact with the ISS at 5.30pm on Sunday.
After docking was completed, Nasa astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov boarded the station just after 7pm, embracing their floating colleagues.
The official welcome!
— NASA's Johnson Space Center (@NASA_Johnson) September 29, 2024
The Expedition 72 crew welcomed #Crew9, @NASAAstronauts Nick Hague, the Crew 9 commander and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, the crew 9 mission specialist, after their flight aboard the @SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. pic.twitter.com/pOa8sTQWDo
“I just want to say welcome to our new compadres from Dragon Freedom,” said station commander Williams.
“Alex, welcome to the International Space Station, and Nick, welcome back home,” she said.
When Hague and Gorbunov return from the space station in February, they will bring back space veterans Williams and Wilmore.
SpaceX, the private company founded by billionaire Elon Musk, has been flying regular missions every six months to allow the rotation of ISS crews.
But the launch of Crew-9 was postponed from mid-August to late September to give Nasa experts more time to evaluate the reliability of the Starliner and decide how to proceed.
It was then delayed a few more days by the destructive passage of Hurricane Helene, a powerful storm that roared into the opposite side of Florida on Thursday.
In total, Hague and Gorbunov will spend some five months on the ISS. Wilmore and Williams will spend eight months there.
Crew-9 will conduct some 200 scientific experiments during their stay.
With reporting from © AFP 2024
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