A crew has entered the International Space Station (ISS) to replace the astronauts who were stranded there for nine months.
A SpaceX capsule delivered four astronauts on Sunday on a mission to allow Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams – who have been on the ISS since June 2024 – to return home.
The Dragon craft, with the Crew-10 astronauts inside, docked with the orbiting laboratory at 4.04am UK time, around 29 hours after it had been launched on the top of the Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The replacement crew, including Russia’s Kirill Peskov (centre), were welcomed on board the International Space Station (ISS). Pic: NASA
NASA’s Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, both military pilots, along with Japan’s Takuya Onishi and Russia’s Kirill Peskov, both former airline pilots, will spend the next six months at the space station.
Their mission will allow four members of Crew-9, which includes Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams, to return to Earth.
Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore during their unplanned nine month stay in space.
File pic: NASA/AP
It took several minutes for Dragon to safely dock at the ISS, in what is an automated process.
But there was about 1 hour and 45 minutes of additional safety checks before the hatch could be opened.
Mr Wilmore swung open the space station’s hatch and rang the ship’s bell as the arrivals floated in one by one and were greeted with hugs and handshakes.
How they were stranded
Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams originally…
