Featured Image Credit: VideoFromSpace / YouTube
Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore are one step closer to making it home, with their nine-month stay aboard the International Space Station finally coming to an end.
Although the pair of NASA astronauts were only supposed to be in space for eight days, issues with their Boeing Starliner meant they were marooned on the ISS until a relief crew could come and take over their duties.
The pair have become a media sensation, with President Donald Trump telling Elon Musk to go get them, while the tech billionaire then accused the Biden administration of 'abandoning' them for political reasons.
NASA fast-tracked their rescue, and just when it looked like things were going smoothly, a March 12 mission was called off at the last minute. A subsequent flight was canceled due to adverse weather conditions, but making it third time lucky, SpaceX's Crew-10 finally blasted off. Around 29 hours later, the craft docked with the ISS, and there were emotional scenes as Williams and Wilmore finally realized they were going home.
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At 12:04 a.m. EDT on March 16, commander Anne McClain, pilot Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov docked and then entered the ISS' orbital lab.
Onishi was the first through the hatch, followed by Peskov, Ayers, and then McClain. It was all smiles as the Crew-10 crew settled into their new digs, allowing Williams, Wilmore, and Crew-9 astronauts Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov to soon head home.
In a live video beamed from the ISS, McClain said: "Hi everybody down there on Earth. Crew-10 has had a great journey up here, about 28 hours to get back up to the space station. And I cannot tell you the immense joy of our crew when we looked out the window and saw the space station for the first time.
"You can hardly even put it into words, orbiting the Earth for the last couple of days, it has been absolutely incredible."
Crew-10 is scheduled to remain on the ISS for the next six months.
Williams gave a short but sweet response to the arrival, saying: "Houston, thanks for tuning in this early morning, it was a wonderful day, great to see our friends arrive, so thank you so much."
People in the comments were equally touched, with one person writing: "What an amazing time to be alive. Thank you SpaceX and all communities involved!."
Another added: "Gravity or no gravity, hugging another person remains the most priceless gesture."
A third concluded: "Tears of joy, watching them embrace!"
With a few days of handover, Williams and Wilmore are set to depart the ISS on Wednesday (March 19) and have a quick hop back to Earth where they'll be rushed off on a stretcher and quickly put into a 'brutal' regime of recovery.
If all goes as plan, the pair of marooned astronauts will have been in space for a jaw-dropping 286 days. We'd like to say they'll be paid handsomely for their extra time in the stars, but unfortunately, they won't.
