NASA’s caught astronauts welcome their newly arrived replacements to the house station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Simply over a day after blasting off, a SpaceX crew capsule arrived on the Worldwide House Station on Sunday, delivering the replacements for NASA’s two caught astronauts.

The 4 newcomers – representing the U.S., Japan and Russia – will spend a while studying the station’s ins and outs from Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. Then the 2 will strap into their very own SpaceX capsule later this week, one which has been up there since final yr, to shut out an sudden prolonged mission that started final June.

Wilmore and Williams anticipated to be gone only a week once they launched on Boeing’s first astronaut flight. They hit the nine-month mark earlier this month.

The Boeing Starliner capsule encountered so many issues that NASA insisted it come again empty, leaving its take a look at pilots behind to attend for a SpaceX carry.

Whereas the seven house station residents ready for the brand new arrivals, one of many Russians – Ivan Vagner – briefly placed on an alien masks in a lighthearted second. Wilmore swung open the house station’s hatch and rang the ship’s bell as the brand new crew floated in one after the other and had been greeted with hugs and handshakes..

“It was an exquisite day. Nice to see our pals arrive,” Williams instructed Mission Management.

Wilmore’s and Williams’ trip arrived again in late September with a downsized crew of two and two empty seats reserved for the leg again. However extra delays resulted when their replacements’ model new capsule wanted in depth battery repairs. An older capsule took its place, pushing up their return by a pair weeks to mid-March.

Climate allowing, the SpaceX capsule carrying Wilmore, Williams and two different astronauts will undock from the house station early Tuesday and splash down off Florida’s coast later that night.

Till then, there might be 11 aboard the orbiting lab, representing the U.S., Russia and Japan.