A day after takeoff, a Space X crew capsule arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday to deliver replacements for two of NASA’s stuck astronauts.
Why It Matters
NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams have been “stuck in space” for nine months. They were launched at the International Space Station (ISS) on a test flight of Starliner, a spacecraft built under NASA’s contract with Boeing.
Wilmore and Williams launched on what they originally thought was going to be an eight-day mission, but NASA officials determined that it was unsafe for the astronauts to return in the Starliner due to propulsion problems. NASA then had to find an alternative way to bring the astronauts home.
What To Know
The newest crew includes NASA’s Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, both military pilots, alongside Japan’s Takuya Onishi and Russia’s Kirill Peskov, both former airline pilots
The new astronauts will learn about the space station over the next few days from Wilmore and Williams.
Then, the two will strap into their own SpaceX capsule later this week, and end the unexpected nine-month-long mission.
The Boeing Starliner capsule had encountered multiple problems, so much so that NASA has ultimately insisted it comes back empty, leaving the test pilots, Wilmore and Williams waiting for a SpaceX lift.
There were joyful scenes on the ISS as Wilmore swung open the station’s hatch and rang the ship’s bell when the new arrivals came. They floated in one by one, and the astronauts exchanged hugs and handshakes.
In a recent clip shared to X, formerly Twitter, NASA’s Johnson Space Center shared that the four astronauts who recently arrived at the station were welcomed by an orbital sunrise shortly after they docked.
Though Wilmore and Williams have faced challenges and delays, they have been supportive of NASA’s decisions and have remained active contributors to operations on the space station. The pair have conducted experiments and performed spacewalks together.
Williams set a new record for women for the most career spacewalking hours and now holds nine spacewalks.
What People Are Saying
The astronaut Sunita Williams told Mission Control: “It was a wonderful day. Great to see our friends arrive.”
The astronaut Anne McClain said, minutes into the flight: “Spaceflight is tough, but humans are tougher.”
One social-media user wrote on X: “Watching Space X fly over our heads to rescue the astronauts trapped on the international space station was amazing.”
What Happens Next?
Depending on the weather, the SpaceX capsule will undock from the space station sometime after Wednesday, March 19, and splash down off the Florida coast. Until that point, there will be 11 on board the orbiting lab.
This article contains reporting from The Associated Press.
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