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  The crew which will replace the astronauts who have been stuck for nine months on the International Space Station (ISS) have now docked at the orbital laboratory.

A SpaceX capsule brought four astronauts on Sunday on a mission that will provide a way for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been on the ISS since June 2024, to head back home.

Approximately 29 hours after the Falcon 9 rocket took off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Dragon capsule connected with the ISS at 4.04am UK time. The Crew-10 astronauts are inside.

They are NASA’s Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, both military pilots, along with Japan’s Takuya Onishi and Russia’s Kirill Peskov, both former airline pilots. They will be spending the next six months at the space station.

Their mission will enable the return to Earth of four members of Crew-9, which includes Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams.

It took several minutes for Dragon to safely dock at the ISS, an automated process, but there are about 1 hour and 45 minutes of additional safety checks before opening the hatch.

Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams originally planned to spend just eight days in space, but were stranded on the station after their Boeing Starliner spacecraft encountered problems.

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Source: https://news.sky.com/story/crew-arrives-at-international-space-station-to-replace-astronauts-stranded-for-9-months-13329910