SpaceX has initiated a mission to retrieve two astronauts who have been stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) since June. The Dragon capsule, equipped with two vacant seats reserved for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida this past Saturday.
Originally scheduled for an eight-day stay at the space station, the duo’s mission was extended due to a technical issue with the new Boeing Starliner, which returned to Earth without passengers as a precautionary measure. Nasa astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov are enroute to the ISS with fresh supplies for Butch and Suni, with plans to bring them back home in February.
The Dragon launch was initially planned for Thursday but faced a delay due to the impact of Hurricane Helene, which caused devastation across Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and the Carolinas. SpaceX, led by the billionaire Elon Musk, has been regularly transporting crews to and from the ISS every six months.
The Dragon spacecraft is anticipated to rendezvous with the ISS on Sunday around 21:30 GMT. As per an agreement between Nasa and Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, the three-seat Russian Soyuz spacecraft carries a Nasa astronaut on each flight to the ISS, while a cosmonaut accompanies each four-seat Dragon mission.
