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SpaceX crew replaces stranded astronauts on the ISS

Yesterday 15:44 By: Zahouani Ilham

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A pair of NASA astronauts who had been stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) for over nine months are now one step closer to returning home. This milestone came after their replacement crew docked with the ISS on Sunday morning.

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been stuck aboard the ISS since June, greeted their replacement crew with warm embraces in the microgravity environment shortly after the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule arrived at 0545 GMT.

Their prolonged stay resulted from an issue with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, which was unable to return them to Earth after suffering propulsion failure on its first crewed flight. Following the empty return of the Starliner capsule to Earth, Wilmore and Williams remained aboard the station far beyond the usual six-month ISS mission rotation.

Their extended mission was the subject of global attention, particularly because they were forced to receive additional supplies to cover the longer-than-expected duration of their stay. Despite this, their time aboard the ISS was short compared to NASA astronaut Frank Rubio's record-setting 371 days and Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov's world record of 437 days in space.

Wilmore and Williams are now preparing for their return journey, with an ocean splashdown off Florida's coast scheduled for March 19. Alongside them will be NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, all aboard the returning Crew Dragon capsule.

The Crew-10 team that launched on Friday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida consists of NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan’s Takuya Onishi, and Russia’s Kirill Peskov. During their mission, the crew will perform scientific experiments, such as testing spacecraft flammability and studying the effects of space travel on the human body.