NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have welcomed four new arrivals at the International Space Station, marking a successful rescue mission after their initial nine-month stay was cut short due to issues with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft.
The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov arrived at the space station on Sunday morning. The new crew will spend six months on the station, learning about its systems from Wilmore and Williams during their brief stay.
The four stuck astronauts had been conducting scientific research and maintenance tasks before departing for SpaceX’s capsule. They are scheduled to return to Earth on Wednesday, bringing an end to a mission that was originally intended to last just a week.
Wilmore and Williams will take command of the new Crew Dragon capsule that has been attached to the space station since last year. The mission marks a successful recovery operation by NASA, with former astronaut Leroy Chiao hailing it as “flawless” in an appearance on Fox News Channel.
Source: https://www.foxbusiness.com/fox-news-science/nasas-stuck-astronauts-welcome-replacements-who-arrived-space-station-spacex-capsule