Space travel Return mission for stranded astronauts arrives at ISS

SDA

16.3.2025 - 05:23

Launched on Saturday, "Crew 10" is to replace the astronauts who have been stranded on the International Space Station for months. (archive image)
Launched on Saturday, "Crew 10" is to replace the astronauts who have been stranded on the International Space Station for months. (archive image)
Keystone

A return space capsule for the two US astronauts who have been stranded in the International Space Station (ISS) since June has arrived at the outpost of humanity. However, bad weather could delay the return of the stranded astronauts a little longer.

Keystone-SDA

The 'Crew Dragon' from tech billionaire Elon Musk's private space company SpaceX docked with the ISS, as live images from the US space agency NASA showed.

On board is the so-called "Crew 10" consisting of the US astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers as well as the Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and the Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. The launch was originally scheduled for Wednesday, but had to be postponed due to a hydraulic problem on the ground. The problem was later resolved.

The "Crew 10" is to replace the "Crew 9"

Crew 10 is to replace Crew 9 - US astronaut Suni Williams, her colleagues Barry Wilmore and Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov - in the space station some 400 kilometers above the Earth. After a few days together on board the ISS, "Crew 9" will return to Earth on Wednesday, while "Crew 10" will remain in space until the fall.

Hague and Gorbunov have been on board the ISS since the end of September, while Williams and Wilmore have been there since June. They were actually only supposed to stay for around a week. However, due to technical problems with their "Starliner" spacecraft, NASA decided to bring the broken-down spacecraft back to Earth empty in September. The planned week turned into almost ten months in space for the two experienced astronauts, who had already been on the ISS several times before.