Florida, March 16 (H.S.): A SpaceX rocket with a new crew has arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) under plans to bring back Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been trapped at the ISS for nearly nine months. The astronauts were expected to stay at the ISS for only eight days, but they have been stuck there for more than nine months due to technical issues with the experimental spacecraft.

According to NASA, the four crew members of the SpaceX Crew-10 mission were launched towards the International Space Station from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A in Florida at 7:03 PM Eastern Time on Friday. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the Dragon spacecraft into orbit with NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nicole Aunapu Mann, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos astronaut Kiril Peskov.

After a long wait, Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket Falcon 9 was launched on March 14 at around 4:30 AM Indian time. According to NASA, the spacecraft autonomously docked at the forward port of the station’s Harmony module on March 15 at around 11:30 AM. Shortly after that, the crew joined the laboratory in orbit for a long-duration stay. The hatch of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft opened on March 16 at 1:35 AM, and members of Crew-10 entered the space station, joining the excited Expedition 72 crew. NASA wrote on ‘X’, Shortly after docking at the space station, Crew-10 was welcomed by an orbital sunrise. Welcome to space, Anne, Nicole, Takuya, and Kiril.

Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams, who has been stranded at the space station for 9 months, will return to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) in four days, on March 19. Sunita and Butch Wilmore, who went with her, have been stuck at the ISS for nine months due to a technical malfunction in their spacecraft, which prevented their return at the scheduled time. The new crew includes NASA’s Anne McClain and Nicole Aunapu Mann, Japan’s JAXA’s Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kiril Peskov. These four astronauts will now replace Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore, and two other members of Crew-9 at the ISS.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar