Countdown begins for Sunita William, Butch Wilmore's return as crew reaches ISS
PTC News Desk: NASA and SpaceX successfully launched a crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS) to retrieve NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been stranded in space since last June.
The Dragon spacecraft lifted off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7:03 PM ET on Friday (4:33 AM IST). It docked with the ISS around 10 AM. The Crew-10 mission includes NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.
Indian origin astronaut Sunita Williams thanked Houston for tuning early in the morning. "Houston, thanks for tuning in early morning. Great to see our friends arrive," said Sunita Williams.
NASA Astronaut Anne C McClain expressed her joy upon reaching International Space Station (ISS).
"I cannot tell you the immense joy of our crew when we looked out of the window and saw the space station for the first time...,"said Anne C McClain, NASA Astronaut and US Army Colonel.
"You can hardly put it into words. The ride up the Falcon 9, orbiting the earth for the last couple of days, it has been absolutely incredible. It is something none of us could do by ourselves. You cannot be great without the greatness of others. And the greatness of the ground control team has really shined through in getting us up here safely," she added.
- With inputs from agencies
