Just over a day after blasting off, a SpaceX crew capsule arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, delivering the replacements for NASA’s two stuck astronauts.
The four newcomers — representing the U.S., Japan and Russia — will spend the next few days learning the station’s ins and outs from Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. Then the two will strap into their own SpaceX capsule later this week to close out an unexpected extended mission that began last June.
Wilmore and Williams expected to be gone just a week when they launched on Boeing’s first astronaut flight. They hit the nine-month mark earlier this month.
Live @NASA+ coverage is now scheduled for 10:25pm ET today as four @SpaceX #Crew10 members approach the space station aboard the Dragon spacecraft for a docking at 12:07am Sunday. Watch here... https://t.co/of6YqgRwoz pic.twitter.com/tCG9naWfhA
— International Space Station (@Space_Station) March 15, 2025
Shortly after docking to the @Space_Station, Crew-10 was welcomed by an orbital sunrise.
— NASA's Johnson Space Center (@NASA_Johnson) March 16, 2025
Welcome to space, Anne, Nichole, Takuya, and Kirill 🧑🚀 pic.twitter.com/ePL3h2HgSE
The Boeing Starliner capsule encountered so many problems that NASA insisted it come back empty, leaving its test pilots behind to wait for a SpaceX lift.
Their ride arrived in late September with a downsized crew of two and two empty seats reserved for the leg back. But more delays resulted when their replacements’ brand new capsule needed extensive battery repairs. An older capsule took its place, pushing up their return by a couple 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.
