A SpaceX Dragon capsule successfully transported a team of four astronauts to the International Space Station as part of a NASA crew exchange mission, enabling the return of two NASA astronauts who had been stranded for nine months.
The Crew-10 astronauts’ SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule docked to the ISS at 12:04am ET (04:04 GMT) on Sunday after launching from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, taking about 29 hours to reach their destination.
Upon arrival, the Crew-10 astronauts were warmly greeted by the seven-member crew already present on the station, which includes Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams – experienced NASA astronauts and former Navy test pilots who had been staying on the station since June.
Due to propulsion issues with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft they were meant to return on, Wilmore and Williams had their stay extended well beyond the typical six-month rotation for ISS astronauts.
Although their stay was lengthy, it pales in comparison to the US space record of 371 days set by NASA astronaut Frank Rubio in 2023, or the world record held by Russian astronaut Valeri Polyakov, who spent 437 consecutive days on the Mir space station.
The Crew-10 mission, while routine, marks an important milestone in bringing Wilmore and Williams back to Earth – a plan set by NASA in the previous year and given increased priority by President Donald Trump upon taking office in January.
The two NASA astronauts are set to depart the ISS on Wednesday as early as 4am ET (08:00 GMT), alongside NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian astronaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
Hague and Gorbunov arrived at the ISS in September on a Crew Dragon craft with two empty seats reserved for Wilmore and Williams, and the craft has been docked to the station ever since.
The Crew-10 team, who will spend approximately six months on the station, consists of NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and Russian astronaut Kirill Peskov.
