NASA and SpaceX ‘s Crew-9 manned mission arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) without complications on Sunday afternoon , to bring back to Earth in February 2025 the two astronauts ‘trapped’ in the orbital station.
SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft docked at 17:30 US Eastern Time (21:30 GMT) to the ISS.
The station’s hatch opened nearly two hours after arrival, as mission commander NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov , a mission specialist, were greeted by the ISS team.
The two astronauts were travelling with two free seats, which two other astronauts gave up; they will be occupied upon their return by Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore and Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams, the astronauts on Boeing’s Starliner capsule ‘trapped’ on the ISS.
Wilmore and Williams were supposed to spend just over a week on the ISS, where they arrived in June, but after technical problems with the spacecraft could not be resolved, NASA decided on September 6 that they would stay in space until Dragon returns in February.
The two occupants of Crew-9, the ninth operational manned flight mission aboard Dragon on NASA’s behalf, will remain in the orbiting laboratory for about five months conducting research.
Astronauts Hague and Gorbunov will join the ISS expedition, which is currently commanded by Williams, and will conduct ongoing research and studies into blood clotting, the effects of humidity on space-grown plants such as lettuce, and changes in astronauts’ vision.
Studying changes in crew vision in space is especially important, so they will try to find out if vitamin B can prevent or mitigate this eye problem, said NASA operations integration manager Dina Contella.
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