Florida (TDI): A SpaceX capsule sent to retrieve the two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) has arrived its destination.
The Dragon capsule, which has two empty seats for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, docked at 17:30 eastern time (22:30 BST), BBC has reported.
The pair arrived at the station for an eight-day mission in June, but they couldn’t returned to earth, because of a fault discovered during the flight and now expected to return in February.
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Carrying NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov, the Dragon capsule lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Saturday.
Gorbunov will join the space station’s crew before taking Wilmore and Williams back to Earth.
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Hurricane Helene had disturbed the launch scheduled for Thursday and it was delayed.
According to the report, footage from inside the ISS showed Hague and Gorbunov smiling and posing for photos with the rest of the crew after their arrival.
During the flight, carrying Wilmore and Williams to the space, a number of issues were noted, including leaks of helium – which is used in its propulsion system – and issues with several of its thrusters.
Engineers at Boeing and Nasa spent months to fix the problems, but in August Nasa concluded that it would be not safe to try to bring back Wilmore and Williams on the same Starliner.
The capsule had already been delayed for several years because issues during its development, as well as test flights in 2019 and 2022.
