SpaceX Dragon docks with ISS to bring back stranded astronauts

SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov docked with International Space Station Space X CEO Elon Musk announced on SundayIn a post on X Musk posted SpaceX Dragon docks with Space StationSpaceX Dragon docks with Space StationpictwittercomnQMLO1U9gPmdash Elon Musk elonmusk March 16 2025In a statement NASA stated NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers JAXA Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday as the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft docked to the orbiting complex at 1204 am EDT while the station was roughly 260 statute miles over the Atlantic OceanAfter SpaceX Dragons linkup to the forward facing port of the stations Harmony module the crew members aboard Dragon and the space station will start conducting standard leak checks and pressurization between the spacecraft and the station in preparation for a hatch opening scheduled for approximately 145 am US time on SundayCrew10 will join the Expedition 72 crew of NASA astronauts Nick Hague Don Petitt Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore and Roscosmos cosmonauts Aleksandr Gorbunov Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner according to the statement released by NASA The number of crew aboard the space station will rise to 11 people before Crew9 members Hague Williams Wilmore and Gorbunov return to Earth after the crew handover periodOn Friday SpaceX and NASA launched a mission to bring back US astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore from the ISS where they have been stranded for nine months The liftoff took place at 703 ET on Friday with a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon spacecraft on the Crew10 missionThe launch came after US President Donald Trump urged SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to rescue the stranded astronauts sooner than NASA had planned He has repeatedly accused former US President Joe Biden of abandoning them in spaceOn March 7 Trump said that he has authorised Elon Musk to bring back American astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore who have been stranded at the International Space station since June last yearButch Wilmore and Sunita Williams have been stranded on the ISS for nine months after reaching there in June last year They were supposed to stay there for about a weekThe astronauts were transported from Earth to the ISS aboard Boeings Starliner spacecraft However the spacecraft came back to Earth unmanned in September This came after Starliner faced helium leaks and issues with the spacecraft reaction control thrusters while docking with the ISS Fox News reportedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever