NASA's replacement crew successfully docked at the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday morning, completing a crucial step in the long-awaited return of astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore. The Crew-10 mission, launched aboard SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, arrived at the ISS at approximately 9:40 AM IST, following an accelerated timeline aimed at facilitating the departure of the Crew-9 astronauts.

The four-member Crew-10 team consists of Nasa astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan's Takuya Onishi, and Russia's Kirill Peskov.

After a smooth autonomous docking manoeuvre, monitored by both the spacecraft crew and the ISS team, the new arrivals were welcomed aboard by the existing Expedition 72 crew. Their mission will extend over the next six months, overseeing critical operations aboard the space station.

Crew-10 will join the Expedition 72 crew of Nasa astronauts Nick Hague, Don Petitt, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Aleksandr Gorbunov, Alexey Ovchinin, and Ivan Vagner. The number of crew aboard the space station will increase to 11 people before Crew-9 members Hague, Williams, Wilmore, and Gorbunov return to Earth following the crew handover period.

For Williams and Wilmore, this marks the final phase of an unexpectedly prolonged mission. The duo, who initially launched aboard Boeing's Starliner capsule on June 5, 2024, for what was meant to be a short-term test flight, found themselves stranded in orbit due to technical failures.

Helium leaks and thruster malfunctions rendered their original spacecraft unsafe for return, prompting Nasa and Boeing to conduct months-long investigations before ultimately deciding to send the Starliner back empty.

With their return delayed, Nasa arranged for them to travel back aboard a SpaceX flight. However, further setbacks-including necessary battery repairs on the new SpaceX capsule-pushed their departure date to mid-March. To expedite their return, Nasa ultimately opted to use a previously flown Dragon capsule for Crew-10's launch.

The extended stay of the astronauts became a subject of political scrutiny, with US President Donald Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk weighing in on the delays. Both publicly committed to accelerating the mission, with Trump even blaming the previous administration for setbacks in Nasa's operations.

Source: India Today