SpaceX Dragon docks at ISS to rescue Boeing astronauts stuck since June

SpaceX’s Dragon capsule successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday, September 29. The space station was 265 miles (426km) above Botswana in southern Africa when the docking happened.

This Crew-9 mission includes NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. The remaining two seats have been designated for the return of American astronauts stranded on the orbital station since June.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are now expected to arrive back in February 2025. They have been stuck in space due to a malfunction in their original spacecraft, Boeing’s Starliner.

Crew-9 mission was launched from Space Launch Complex-40 (SLC-40) at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on September 28. Due to Hurricane Helene, the launch was rescheduled from the planned Thursday.

Hague and Gorbunov are now part of Expedition 72, residing on the orbiting laboratory for five months.

The current ISS crew includes Michael Barratt, Matthew Dominick, Jeanette Epps, Don Pettit, Wilmore, and Williams, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexander Grebenkin, Alexey Ovchinin, and Ivan Vagner.

As per NASA, Barratt, Dominick, Epps, and Grebenkin, members of Crew-8, will leave the space station in early October.

Faults in Starliner

Wilmore and Williams arrived at the ISS in June on Starliner’s first crewed test flight. Originally intended to be a brief eight-day mission, their stay at the ISS was extended due to a fault discovered during their flight.

The flight was plagued by various issues, including helium leaks in the propulsion system and problems with multiple thrusters.

After months of investigation, NASA decided that returning them on Starliner was too risky. Meanwhile, Boeing maintained its stand that the Starliner was safe for astronaut return. It returned without a crew on September 7th.

NASA’s decision to select SpaceX instead of Starliner was a major blow for Boeing.

After retiring its space shuttle fleet in 2011, NASA became reliant on Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft for travel to and from the ISS. NASA later decided to tap into commercial services for crew rotation missions to the space station.

For this, NASA reportedly awarded contracts worth $4.2bn and $2.6bn to Boeing and SpaceX, respectively. In 2020, SpaceX , led by Elon Musk, achieved a groundbreaking milestone by becoming the first private company to transport astronauts to the ISS.

However, Boeing’s capsule development had been delayed for several years due to setbacks and issues encountered during uncrewed test flights in 2019 and 2022.

Crew to conduct 200 experiments

Now that the docking has been successfully completed, Wilmore, Williams, Hague, and Gorbunov will be returning to Earth in February 2025 when the Crew-9 mission concludes.

For over 23 years, humans have continuously inhabited and worked on the ISS, conducting research, testing technologies, and acquiring the skills needed for future commercial activities in low Earth orbit and beyond.

During this time, the ISS crew will conduct as many as 200 scientific investigations.

As per NASA’s release, these experiments include studies on blood clotting, the effects of moisture on plants grown in space, and changes in astronauts’ vision during their stay in a microgravity environment.