Barry E. Wilmore
SpaceX docks at ISS to take stranded astronauts home next year
The SpaceX crew that will ferry back in February two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station docked with the orbiting laboratory on Sunday, a live stream of the mission showed.
The Falcon 9 rocket took off at 1:17 pm (1717 GMT) from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Saturday, with the Crew-9 mission aboard a Dragon spacecraft making contact with the ISS at 5:30 pm Sunday.
Concerns on the International Space Station: The Starliner began making “strange noises” – Listen to the audio
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were supposed to stay in space for eight days, but will now remain there for eight months due to ongoing issues with the Starliner. These problems led to the difficult decision not to use this spacecraft to bring the two American astronauts back to Earth.
Starliner: How will the astronauts return to Earth? NASA faces a tough dilemma
Suni Williams and Barry Wilmore were initially supposed to stay on the ISS for only one week, but they have now been in space for nearly three months.