the Two astronauts Who stayed in International Space Station (ISS) Since June they have celebrated the arrival of A SpaceX capsule On Sunday, marking the start of their journey home.
This is the company's mission Elon Musk It will dock with the orbiting laboratory and return them to the Moon land in February 2025.
The SpaceX mission that will return stranded astronauts to the International Space Station
he Falcon 9 rocket It took off on Saturday at 1:00 PM from Cape Canaveral Florida (Southern United States), He carries a task Crew-9 in his ship DragonAnd I called International Space Station At five o'clock on Sunday evening.
About two hours after docking was completed, the astronaut arrived NASA Nick Hague And the Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov They boarded the station, hugging their colleagues as they floated off.
“I would like to welcome our new comrades from Dragon's freedom“The station commander announced, Sonny Williamsstranded on the ship International Space Station Next to the astronaut Butch Wilmore.
“Alex, welcome to the International Space Station, and Nick, welcome home,” he added. Nick Hague He already spent six months aboard the International Space Station in 2019.
when The Hague and Gorbunov Returning from the space station in February, they will return Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williamswhich he resides in International Space Station It continued for several months due to problems with their spacecraft Starlinerdesigned by Boeing.
Newly developed Starliner It was making its first manned flight when it took over Wilmore and Williams To the space lab in June.
Initially, they were only going to stay there for eight days, but then problems arose with the vehicle's propulsion system Starliner During the flight, a pot She had to think about changing plans.
After weeks of extensive testing on reliability StarlinerThe space agency finally decided to return it to Earth without its crew and bring the two astronauts back with them SpaceX Crew-9 missionthe private company founded by a billionaire Elon Musk.
That company would fly regular missions every six months to allow for rotation of the ship's crews International Space Station.
In total, Hague and Gorbunov They will spend about five months at the station, while Willmore and Williams will stay eight long months.
the SpaceX Crew-9 mission He also plans to conduct about 200 scientific experiments during his stay.
