(Reuters) – SpaceX’s Crew Dragon space capsule, which is scheduled to return stranded astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams next year, arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, according to NASA and SpaceX.
NASA said in a post on the X website that NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos astronaut Alexander Gorbunov ascended to the International Space Station shortly after the Dragon capsule docked at the station at 2130 GMT.
The SpaceX Crew-9 mission was supposed to transport four astronauts to the International Space Station until two empty seats opened up for Willmore and Williams after the Boeing (NYSE:) Starliner capsule they arrived on in June was deemed unfit to return them to Earth. .
The two former military pilots have been stuck on the International Space Station ever since after their Starliner capsule suffered a propulsion failure and helium leak. NASA has decided it is not safe for astronauts to return aboard Starliner, which was returned to Earth empty earlier this month.
Willmore and Williams, who were the first crew to fly on the troubled Starliner, are now scheduled to return home with Hague and Gorbunov aboard the Crew Dragon in February next year, as what was supposed to be an 8-day mission turned into an 8-day ordeal month.