The NASA-SpaceX Dragon arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday carrying two astronauts. The purpose of this mission is to bring back Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore who are stranded in space. Williams and Wilmore will return to Earth in February 2025.

Astronauts hugging each other

Astronaut Sunita Williams and her colleague Butch Wilmore have been stranded in space for several months. Now NASA and SpaceX's Crew-9 mission has been launched to bring them back to Earth. Traveling in a SpaceX Dragon capsule to bring Sunita and Butch back, NASA's Nick Hague and cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos successfully reached the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday. On reaching there, everyone gave a warm welcome to Hague and Gorbunov.

Astronauts hugged each other as soon as they reached the station

The Falcon 9 rocket took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 1:17 pm (1717 GMT) on Saturday, while the Crew-9 mission on the Dragon spacecraft approached the ISS at 5:30 pm on Sunday. After docking was completed, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov landed on the station after 7:00 pm and hugged their colleagues on the space station. On which NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy said in a news conference that today was a great day.

How Sunita and her companions got stranded in space

Contact confirmed at 5:30pm ET (2130 UTC). Next, the Dragon spacecraft will complete the docking sequence, and undergo a series of checks before crews can open the hatch and welcome #Crew9 to the @Space_Station. pic.twitter.com/y3ve8FLBqs

— NASA (@NASA) September 29, 2024

Nice🔥

— @Marcia M 𝕏 (@MbsrlM) September 29, 2024

When Hague and Gorbunov return from the space station in February, they will bring back two space veterans - Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams - who were unable to return to Earth on time due to problems with the Boeing-designed Starliner. While they were scheduled to stay there for only eight days, NASA was forced to change plans after the Starliner malfunctioned during the flight. After weeks of intensive testing on the Starliner's reliability, the space agency eventually decided to bring it back without a crew.