SpaceX crew-9 capsule successfully docks at ISS, bringing home stranded astronauts
PTC News Desk: In a significant milestone for space travel, the SpaceX crew tasked with bringing back two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) successfully docked with the orbiting laboratory on Sunday, as confirmed by a live stream of the mission.
The Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 1:17 pm EDT (1717 GMT) on Saturday. The Dragon spacecraft, part of the Crew-9 mission, made contact with the ISS at approximately 5:30 pm on Sunday. Following the successful docking, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov entered the space station shortly after 7:00 pm, where they received warm welcomes from their colleagues already aboard.
Welcome, #Crew9! After floating through the Dragon’s hatch, our new arrivals join the crew aboard the @Space_Station. They’ll spend five months conducting @ISS_Research and maintenance on the orbiting lab. pic.twitter.com/DJX7f9vxlg
— NASA (@NASA) September 29, 2024
“What a fabulous day it was today,” NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy remarked during a news conference following the event.
Hague and Gorbunov are set to return from the ISS in February, bringing back with them two seasoned astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams. Their return has been delayed for several months due to complications with their Boeing-designed Starliner spacecraft.
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The Starliner, which was making its first crewed flight when it transported Wilmore and Williams to the ISS in June, was initially intended for an eight-day mission. However, issues with the Starliner’s propulsion system forced NASA to reconsider their plans.
After conducting weeks of intensive reliability tests on the Starliner, NASA ultimately decided that the safest course of action would be to return it to Earth without its crew. Instead, the agency opted to retrieve the two stranded astronauts using SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission.
SpaceX, founded by billionaire Elon Musk, has been operating regular missions approximately every six months to facilitate the rotation of crews aboard the ISS. The launch of Crew-9 was initially scheduled for mid-August but was postponed to late September to allow NASA experts additional time to assess the Starliner’s reliability. The launch faced further delays due to Hurricane Helene, a powerful storm that impacted the opposite side of Florida earlier in the week.
Overall, Hague and Gorbunov will spend around five months aboard the ISS, while Wilmore and Williams will have been there for eight months by the time of their return. Throughout their mission, Crew-9 is expected to conduct approximately 200 scientific experiments, contributing valuable research to ongoing efforts in space exploration.