On Saturday 28th September 2024, SpaceX launched a rescue mission to bring back Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams who have been stranded on International Space Station for three months after Boeing’s Starliner experienced an issue in its propulsion system.
The Falcon -9 Rocket took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Saturday with a Crew-9 mission on Dragon spacecraft. The Dragon Freedom spacecraft carried two crew members NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian Cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov. The Dragon Freedom spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station and docked at the orbiting complex on Sunday at 5:30 p.m. EDT.
The latest SpaceX Crew -9 mission planned to carry two astronauts instead of the originally planned four crew members to reserve two empty seats for the two stranded astronauts who will remain in late February.
Wilmore and Williams reached ISS in June 2024 and were supposed to be there for only eight days. After thruster issues and helium leaks found in the Starliner spacecraft, the two astronauts were stuck in space for three months. With the new spacecraft launch, they will remain there until February 2025.