SpaceX Crew-9 arrives at ISS; welcomed by NASA's Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore

WASHINGTON: After months of uncertainty, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, travelling in the SpaceX Dragon capsule, successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday to bring back Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who had been stuck there since June 2024.

As they stepped aboard, they were greeted by the Expedition 72 crew, NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore. SpaceX launched the rescue mission on Saturday that will bring them home next year. Hague and Gorbunov entered the ISS after opening the hatch between the space station and the pressurised mating adapter at 7:04 p.m.

EDT before opening the hatch to Dragon, NASA said in a statement. Hague and Gorbunov were welcomed by the space station's Expedition 72 crew, including NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps, Don Petitt, Butch Wilmore, and Sunita Williams, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexander Grebenkin, Alexey Ovchinin, and Ivan Vagner.

In a post on X, NASA's Johnson Space Center wrote, "The official welcome! The Expedition 72 crew welcomed Crew 9, NASA astronauts Nick Hague, the Crew 9 commander and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, the Crew 9 mission specialist, after their flight aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft."

Notably, for a short time, the number of crew aboard the space station will increase to 11 people until Crew-8 members Dominick, Barratt, Epps, and Grebenkin return to Earth in early October.

On Saturday, SpaceX had launched a reduced two-man crew to the ISS, carrying supplies and two empty seats for Starliner astronauts awaiting a return home in February after an unplanned eight-and-a-half-month stay in orbit, CBS News reported. The launch was delayed by two days due to high winds, rain, and clouds associated with Hurricane Helene.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket finally ignited and lifted off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 1:17 pm EDT, following a north-easterly trajectory directly aligned with the ISS's orbital plane. Inside the Crew Dragon "Freedom," Hague monitored the automated ascent alongside Gorbunov, who was on his maiden flight.

Typically, Crew Dragons launch with four crew members; however, two Crew 9 astronauts--Stephanie Wilson and Zena Cardman--were removed from the mission in August to accommodate seats for Starliner commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore and pilot Sunita Williams when Crew Dragon returns to Earth in February.

Notably, Sunita Williams and Butch Willmore have been at the ISS since June. The pair had launched aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft on June 5 for its first crewed flight, arriving at the space station on June 6. A decision was made to return Starliner to Earth without its crew, and the spacecraft successfully returned on September 6 after NASA in August said that it's "too risky" to bring Wilmore and Williams back to Earth. Wilmore and Williams continued their work formally as part of the expedition and will return in February next year. This means what would have been a week-long test flight, extended to around 8 months.

"Wilmore and Williams will continue their work formally as part of the Expedition 71/72 crew through February 2025. They will fly home aboard a Dragon spacecraft with two other crew members assigned to the agency's SpaceX Crew-9 mission. Starliner is expected to depart from the space station and make a safe, controlled autonomous re-entry and landing in early September," NASA had said in a statement.