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International Space Station (ISS)
A SpaceX crew successfully docked at the International Space Station (ISS) in the early hours of Sunday morning, embarking on a mission to relieve two NASA astronauts who have been residing in space for an extended period of nine months.
The SpaceX Crew-10 Dragon capsule seamlessly docked with the ISS shortly after midnight on the East Coast, following its launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday evening, as reported by the New York Post. The capsule carried a four-member crew consisting of NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.
Video footage from the ISS captured the Dragon capsule’s approach and docking sequence at the orbiting space station.
Heartwarming Crew Greeting! SpaceX’s original Crew-10 mission was scrubbed due to weather but successfully launched on March 14, from Kennedy Space Center.. Astronaut Crew -10 successfully docked Sunday with the International Space Station to bring home, Butch and Suni ! 🚀🙌🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/NDzyQeLlFo
— April Color (@ColorApril) March 16, 2025
Cameras within the space station recorded the momentous occasion when the Dragon crew entered the hatch of the ISS just before 2 a.m. EST. The astronauts from the Dragon and ISS greeted each other warmly with hugs and smiles, conveying their excitement.
“The hatch of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft opened March 16 at 1:35 a.m. ET and the members of Crew-10 entered the @Space_Station with the rest of their excited Expedition 72 crew,” NASA’s Johnson Space Center announced on X.
“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,” said McClain, the Dragon crew’s commander, during a live video of the docking. “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,” she added. “Orbiting the Earth for the last couple of days, it has been absolutely incredible.”
SpaceX Dragon Crew 10 safely aboard the @Space_Station 🚀 pic.twitter.com/wPfB5N6x8p
— KK Berd 🇺🇸 (@keny_berd) March 16, 2025
SpaceX undertook this mission to relieve and retrieve American astronauts Butch Willmore and Sunita Williams, who have been aboard the ISS since June after their Boeing Starliner spacecraft encountered technical issues and had to return to Earth unmanned. Willmore and Williams were originally scheduled to remain on the ISS for just 10 days.
“It was a wonderful day. Great to see our friends arrive,” Williams told Mission Control after the Dragon crew’s arrival.
Crew-10 is expected to transition into roles on the ISS and undergo training for several days before Willmore and Williams depart the station along with American Nick Hague and Russian Aleksandr Gorbunov.
