Just over a day after launching, a SpaceX crew capsule arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, bringing the replacements for NASA’s two stranded astronauts.
The four newcomers — from the U.S., Japan, and Russia — will spend the next few days getting acquainted with the station’s operations from Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, UNB reports.
Afterward, the two will board their own SpaceX capsule later this week to wrap up an unexpectedly extended mission that began last June.
Wilmore and Williams had anticipated being gone for only a week when they launched on Boeing’s first astronaut flight, but they marked the nine-month milestone earlier this month.
The Boeing Starliner capsule faced so many issues that NASA insisted it return empty, leaving its test pilots behind to await a SpaceX lift.
Their ride finally arrived in late September, but with a reduced crew of two and two vacant seats reserved for the return journey. Additional delays occurred when their replacements’ brand-new capsule required extensive battery repairs.
An older capsule took its place, pushing their return back by a couple of weeks to mid-March.
Weather permitting, the SpaceX capsule carrying Wilmore, Williams, and two other astronauts will undock from the space station no earlier than Wednesday and splash down off Florida's coast.
