SpaceX crew docks with ISS to bring stranded astronauts home

Two astronauts stranded for more than nine months on the International Space Station are a step closer to returning home.

SpaceX Dragon members with the astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Picture: NASA / AFP

Kennedy Space Centre: Two astronauts stranded for more than nine months on the International Space Station are a step closer to returning home after a replacement crew docked with the orbital outpost.

The astronauts were shown hugging their counterparts shortly after their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule docked.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been stuck aboard the ISS since June after the Boeing Starliner spacecraft they were testing on its maiden crewed voyage suffered propulsion issues and was deemed unfit to fly them back to Earth.

Williams said it was a “wonderful day” and “great to see our friends arrive”, speaking shortly after her colleges emerged onto the orbital lab.

Footage posted by NASA astronaut Don Pettit showed the Crew Dragon vehicle approaching the ISS as it orbited the Earth.

The NASA duo’s Starliner had returned to Earth empty, without experiencing further issues – leaving them stuck for nine months after what was meant to have been a days-long roundtrip.

Their stay was significantly longer than the standard ISS rotation for astronauts of roughly six months.

But it is much shorter than the US space record of 371 days set by NASA astronaut Frank Rubio aboard the ISS in 2023, or the world record held by Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov, who spent 437 continuous days aboard the Mir space station.

Wilmore and Williams will now begin preparing for departure and their ocean splashdown off the Florida coast, no sooner than March 19.

Along with the pair, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov will also be aboard the returning Dragon capsule.

AFP