After months of being stuck in space with uncertainty about their return, the American astronauts are finally taking a sigh of relief after SpaceX’s Crew 9, piloted by NASA’s Nick Hague and Cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, was successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on 29 September, Sunday. Upon their arrival, they were greeted by the Expedition 72 crew, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore. The Crew 9 will bring them back home next year.
NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston wrote in a post on X, “The official welcome! The Expedition 72 crew welcomed Crew 9, NASA astronauts Nick Hague, the Crew 9 commander, and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, the Crew 9 mission specialist, after their flight aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.”
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The mission was also almost canceled, but luckily, it was only delayed for a couple of days. Launch was delayed by almost two days due to Hurricane Helene’s rain, clouds, and high winds. At 1:17 pm EDT, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, following a north-easterly course that perfectly matched the orbital path of the ISS. Now, the crew will begin its journey back home in February 2025, marking Sunita and Butch’s long 8-month expedition in space, which was originally planned for just a few weeks.
On this occasion, NASA said in a statement, “Wilmore and Williams will continue their work formally as part of the Expedition 71/72 crew through February 2025. They will fly home aboard a Dragon spacecraft with two other crew members assigned to the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission. Starliner is expected to depart from the space station and make a safe, controlled autonomous re-entry and landing in early September.”
