The ‘Dragon’ spacecraft belonging to the SpaceX and NASA Crew-9 manned mission has managed to successfully dock this Sunday afternoon at the International Space Station with the aim of bringing back astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who were trapped in the facility in early June after their ship suffered a series of failures.
“NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, as the SpaceX ‘Dragon Freedom’ docked with the orbital complex at 5:30 p.m. EDT“says a NASA statement.
Both Hague and Gobunov will become part of Expedition 72 along with NASA crew members Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps, Don Petitt, Williams and Wilmorte, as well as Roscosmos crew members Alexander Grebenkin, Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner. Therefore, the mission will temporarily have eleven members until Dominick, Barratt, Epps and Grebenkin return to Earth in early October.
Los two new astronauts have arrived with two empty seats on the ship reserved precisely to allow the return of Williams and Wilmorte in February 2025, that they will have to finally complete a long-term mission even though their stay was scheduled for a week.
The Starliner spacecraft in which they took off on June 5 suffered helium leaks after a successful docking, after which five of its 28 reaction control system boosters failed en route to the orbiting laboratory. To avoid risks, it was decided to return the ship without a crew, leaving Williams and Wilmorte trapped on the Station.
Source: www.vozpopuli.com
