Two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been stranded at the International Space Station since June, have welcomed a SpaceX Dragon capsule, set to bring them home next year, as it arrived on Sunday, The Associated Press reports.
The capsule, launched on Saturday with a crew of two other astronauts, Nick Hague and Alexander Gorbunov, docked with the ISS while both spacecraft were soaring above Botswana.
The arrival of the Dragon marked the culmination of a rescue mission triggered by safety concerns surrounding Boeing’s Starliner capsule. The first crewed test flight of the Starliner capsule was marred by thruster failures and helium leaks, prompting NASA to deem it unsafe for crew return. Consequently, Wilmore and Williams were switched to the SpaceX capsule, extending their planned weeklong mission into an eight-month stay.
“Coming through the hatch and seeing all the smiles, and as much as I’ve laughed and cried in the last 10 minutes, I know it’s going to be an amazing expedition,” said Hague.
The extended stay of the four astronauts onboard the ISS, originally planned for a six-month rotation, was further lengthened by a month due to the Starliner complications. The Dragon will remain docked with the ISS until February, allowing the four original astronauts to return to Earth in their own SpaceX capsule in just over a week, bringing the station’s crew size back down to the usual seven.
Meanwhile, SpaceX is investigating a malfunction that occurred during Saturday’s launch, where the rocket’s spent upper stage landed outside its designated target zone in the Pacific. The company has temporarily halted all Falcon launches pending the investigation.
Inspections and investigations are underway for the Starliner capsule at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, with data analysis set to begin this week, as Boeing seeks to address the issues that have plagued the program.
