NASA and Elon Musk’s SpaceX successfully initiated a long-anticipated crew mission to the International Space Station (ISS) to return astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been stranded in space for more than nine months due to technical difficulties with their Starliner capsule. Crew-10 has officially reached the ISS after SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft successfully docked at 12:04 am ET (9:34 am Indian time).
Immediately after finishing the docking, Crew-10 was greeted by a sunrise in orbit.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, transporting four astronauts set to take the place of Wilmore and Williams.
The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft has now successfully docked at the ISS at 9:35 am Indian time on March 16. The hatch was opened soon after the spacecraft completed routine leak inspections and pressurization.
At 9:30 IST, the spacecraft commenced its final approach upon receiving confirmation from the ISS crew to dock. The Crew Dragon spacecraft has finished its rendezvous, and the docking process concluded at approximately 9:40 am IST, with the ISS team greeting the incoming NASA astronauts. The spacecraft is prepared for the hatch to be opened at the ISS.
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The hatch opened around 1:35 am ET (11:05 am Indian time), after which the Crew Dragon astronauts joined the space station and were observed hugging and embracing the members of the Expedition 72 crew in zero gravity. The Crew-9 is anticipated to give their goodbye statements later today.
The astronauts left behind would be substituted by four new astronauts who launched on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket – Cosmonaut Mission Specialist Kirill Peskov from Russia’s Roscosmos, Pilot Nichole Ayers, Commander Anne McClain from the US, and Mission Specialist Takuya Onishi from Japan’s JAXA.
Williams and Wilmore greeted the four astronauts who are set to replace them at the space station. The four arrivals from the US, Russia, and Japan will take the next few days to understand the station’s details from the pair before the latter head back home.
