(CNN) –– After their week-long stay aboard the International Space Station for months, two Boeing Starliner astronauts are now within striking distance of the spacecraft that will eventually bring them home.
After astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Willmore's Starliner spacecraft were deemed too dangerous for the crew, the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule selected by NASA to take them back to Earth has arrived at the space station. Vahan, A The mission, called Crew-9, Docked at ISS around 5:30pm on Sunday.
The SpaceX vehicle is carrying NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Korbunov. Next to them are two empty seats, reserved for Williams and Wilmore to occupy when the team returns to Earth next year.
The capsule's hatch opened at approximately 7:04 ET, allowing Hague and Korbunov to enter the space station. A welcome ceremony for the orbiting laboratory featuring Hack, Korbunov, Williams, Willmore and seven other personnel was scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Hack and Korbunov took off from the Cape Canaveral Space Station in Florida on Saturday afternoon aboard Crew Dragon. Although they reached their desired orbit without issue, SpaceX later revealed that they encountered a problem after separating from the second or upper stage capsule of the Falcon 9 rocket that powered the first part of its journey.
“Following the successful launch of Crew-9, the Falcon 9 second stage ejected into the ocean as planned, but an abnormal orbital burn occurred,” the company shared in a statement. Post on X. “As a result, the second stage landed safely at sea, but outside the planned area.”
SpaceX indicated that it would temporarily suspend flights with the Falcon 9 (the world's most frequently launched rocket) while it analyzed the anomaly. “After we better understand the root cause, we will resume,” Company X said in the post.
CNN has reached out to the Federal Aviation Administration for comment.
Meanwhile, Crew-9's SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule spent a day in orbit as it prepared to dock with the International Space Station. Once safely inserted into one of the station's docking ports, the shuttle will open its hatch, allowing Hack and Korbunov to join the other astronauts already in the orbiting lab.
Together, Hack, Williams, Willmore and Korbunov will complete SpaceX's Crew-9 team. The crew will spend about five months on the space station before returning home.
Williams and Willmore first traveled to the International Space Station in early June aboard the Boeing Starliner spacecraft for what was expected to be a week-long test mission.
But problems with helium leaks and faulty boosters left engineers scrambling to figure out what went wrong. NASA ultimately determined that the Starliner's problems were not sufficiently understood for the space agency to allow Williams and Willmore to return to the ship.
However, the Starliner returned home empty on September 6.
After deciding not to return Williams and Wilmore to Earth aboard the Starliner, NASA chose to reschedule SpaceX's flight plans. He decided to pull two other astronauts (astronaut Stephanie Wilson and Jeana Cartman, who was about to make her first spacewalk) from the Crew-9 mission to make room for the Starliner crew.
But Williams and Wilmore must fulfill the duties of the original Crew-9 crew, which include several months of regular work on the space station before their return trip.
Both Williams and Willmore said that on previous trips to the space station, they easily adjusted to the idea of staying in space until next year, with Williams referring to the microgravity environment as their “happy place.”
Completing the team currently aboard the International Space Station are Dan Pettit and Alexei Ovchinin of NASA and Ivan Wagner of the Russian space agency Roscosmos. The trio arrived at the space station on September 11 aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
Pettit and Korbunov traveled aboard a spacecraft built outside their home countries as part of a seat transfer agreement between NASA and its Russian partner.
