The SpaceX vessel, responsible for bringing the two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) back to Earth, docked there on Sunday, according to images from the live broadcast of the mission.
The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 1:17 p.m. local Saturday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying a Dragon craft that finally docked at the station at 5:30 p.m. Sunday.
The two passengers on the Crew-9 mission, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov, entered the ISS shortly after 7 p.m. and embraced their colleagues who were floating on the ISS.
“I just want to welcome our new comrades from Dragon Freedom,” said station commander Suni Williams, stranded aboard the ISS with astronaut Butch Wilmore.
“Alex, welcome to the International Space Station, and Nick, welcome home,” she added. Nick Hague has already spent six months aboard the ISS in 2019.
On their return, scheduled for February, Nick Hague and Alexandre Gorbounov must take Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore with them. They took off at the beginning of June aboard a new vessel developed by Boeing, Starlinerfor which it was the first crewed test flight to the station.
Starliner was initially scheduled to return them to Earth eight days later, but problems detected with its propulsion system led NASA to question its reliability.
After long weeks of tests, the space agency finally returned the Boeing capsule empty, and decided to bring back the two castaways with the Crew-9 mission.
Billionaire Elon Musk’s company regularly carries out rotation missions for the ISS crew.
The takeoff of Crew-9 was delayed from mid-August to the end of September to give NASA teams more time to make a decision regarding the Boeing spacecraft. The launch then had to be postponed again by a few days due to the hurricane Helene which affected Florida this week.
In total, Nick Hague and Alexandre Gorbounov will spend around five months on the ISS. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will have spent around eight months.
Some 200 scientific experiments are planned during Crew-9’s stay aboard the flying laboratory.