SpaceX Crew Reaches International Space Station, To Bring Back Sunita Williams, Another Astronaut In February 2025

The SpaceX crew tasked with returning two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) successfully docked with the orbiting lab on Sunday (29 September), according to a live stream of the mission.

The Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 1:17 pm (1717 GMT) on Saturday. The Crew-9 mission, aboard a Dragon spacecraft, made contact with the ISS at 5:30 pm on Sunday.

Following the docking, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov boarded the station shortly after 7:00 pm, where they were greeted by their fellow astronauts.

"It was a fabulous day today," remarked NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy during a news conference.

Hague and Gorbunov are scheduled to return to Earth in February, bringing back veteran astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams. Their stay on the ISS had been extended due to issues with the Boeing-designed Starliner spacecraft.

The Starliner was on its first crewed flight when it delivered Wilmore and Williams to the ISS in June. Initially, their mission was to last only eight days, but problems with the Starliner’s propulsion system during the flight led NASA to reconsider the mission plan.

After extensive tests on the Starliner, NASA ultimately decided to return the spacecraft to Earth without its crew and arranged for Wilmore and Williams to return aboard SpaceX's Crew-9 mission.

SpaceX, the private company founded by Elon Musk, has been conducting regular ISS crew rotation missions every six months. However, the Crew-9 launch was delayed from mid-August to late September to allow NASA more time to assess the Starliner's reliability. Further delays occurred due to Hurricane Helene's impact on Florida.

Hague and Gorbunov are expected to spend approximately five months on the ISS, while Wilmore and Williams will have spent eight months aboard by the time they return. During their mission, Crew-9 will conduct around 200 scientific experiments.