Over the moon: SpaceX capsule docks with ISS as stranded NASA astronauts welcome replacement crew
16 March 2025, 07:24 | Updated: 16 March 2025, 08:01
A SpaceX capsule has docked with International Space Station (ISS) as the replacement crew were welcomed by two 'stranded' NASA astronauts who have been trapped in space for the last nine months.
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The Dragon craft was seen to dock with the ISS at 4.04am UK time after around 29 hours in transit, with the four replacement astronauts warmly welcomed by Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.
"It was a wonderful day. Great to see our friends arrive," Ms Williams told Mission Control.
The SpaceX capsule's deliver will now allow a crew changeover that will see Wilmore and Williams finally return to earth following their extended mission.
The docking marks a milestone for the pair, who have been stranded on the ISS since June 2024 since technical issues saw their eight day mission turn into a nine month stretch in space.
Musk's SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully lifted off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Friday following a string of delays, with the rocket carrying four new Nasa astronauts to replace the two currently residing on the ISS.
The Crew-10 mission was initially scheduled to launch from Florida on Wednesday, however, ground issues - notably that the brand new capsule needed extensive battery repairs - forced a delay.
Speaking after the successful docking, Ms McClain said: "Crew-10 has had a great journey up here and I cannot tell you the immense joy of our crew when we looked out the window and we saw the space station for the first time.
"That is such an amazing journey. You can hardly even put it into words."
It comes days after a SpaceX rocket was seen to explode mid-air, sending burning schrapnel across the sky, with onlookers across the world - and in the air, capturing the burning debris on camera.
Nasa said it wants an overlap between the two crews so Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams can fill in the newcomers on happenings aboard the orbiting lab.
That would put them on course for an undocking next week and a splashdown off the Florida coast, weather permitting.
The duo will be escorted back by astronauts who flew up on a rescue mission on SpaceX last September alongside two empty seats reserved for Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams on the return leg.
Reaching orbit from Nasa's Kennedy Space Centre, the newest crew includes Nasa's Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, both military pilots, and Japan's Takuya Onishi and Russia's, Kirill Peskov - both former airline pilots.
They will spend the next six months at the space station, considered the normal stint.
"Spaceflight is tough but humans are tougher," Ms McClain said minutes into the flight.
As test pilots for Boeing's new Starliner capsule, Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams expected to be gone just a week or so when they launched from Cape Canaveral on June 5.
A series of helium leaks and thruster failures marred their trip to the space station, setting off months of investigation by Nasa and Boeing on how best to proceed.
Eventually ruling it unsafe, Nasa ordered Starliner to fly back empty last September and moved the astronauts to a SpaceX flight due back in February.
To save a few weeks, SpaceX switched to a used capsule, moving up Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams' homecoming to mid-March.
Retired Navy captains who have lived at the space station before, the pair have repeatedly stressed that they support the decisions made by their Nasa bosses since last summer.
The two helped keep the station running - fixing a broken toilet, watering plants and conducting experiments - and even went out on a spacewalk together. With nine spacewalks, Ms Williams set a new record for women - the most time spent spacewalking over a career.
A last-minute hydraulics issue delayed Wednesday's initial launch attempt.
Concern arose over one of the two clamp arms on the Falcon rocket's support structure that needs to tilt away right before liftoff. SpaceX later flushed out the arm's hydraulics system, removing trapped air.
The duo's extended stay has been hardest, they said, on their families - Mr Wilmore's wife and two daughters, and Ms Williams' husband and mother.
Besides reuniting with them, Mr Wilmore, a church elder, is looking forward to getting back to face-to-face ministering and Ms Williams cannot wait to walk her two Labrador retrievers.
"We appreciate all the love and support from everybody," Ms Williams said in an interview earlier this week.
"This mission has brought a little attention.
There's goods and bads to that. But I think the good part is more and more people have been interested in what we're doing."
