After months of uncertainty, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, travelling in the SpaceX Dragon capsule, successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday to bring back Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who had been stuck there since June 2024.
As they stepped aboard, they were greeted by the Expedition 72 crew, NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore. SpaceX launched the rescue mission on Saturday that will bring them home next year.
Hague and Gorbunov entered the ISS after opening the hatch between the space station and the pressurised mating adapter at 7:04 p.m. EDT before opening the hatch to Dragon, NASA said in a statement.Hague and Gorbunov were welcomed by the space station's Expedition 72 crew, including NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps, Don Petitt, Butch Wilmore, and Sunita Williams, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexander Grebenkin, Alexey Ovchinin, and Ivan Vagner.
Sunita Williams welcomed the two men aboard, with the crew all smiles at the prospect of a rescue.
In a post on X, NASA's Johnson Space Center wrote, "The official welcome! The Expedition 72 crew welcomed Crew 9, NASA astronauts Nick Hague, the Crew 9 commander and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, the Crew 9 mission specialist, after their flight aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft."