(CNN) –– After their week-long journey turned into a month-long stay on the International Space Station, two Boeing Starliner astronauts are now within reach of the spacecraft that will eventually take them home.
The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, chosen by NASA to carry astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore back to Earth after their Starliner spacecraft was deemed too risky for a crew, has arrived at the space station. The mission’s craft, named Crew 9, docked with the ISS at approximately 5:30 p.m. ET on Sunday.
NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov are on board the SpaceX spacecraft. Next to them are two empty seats reserved for Williams and Wilmore when the group returns to Earth next year.
The capsule’s hatch is expected to open at 7:15 pm ET, allowing Haig and Gorbunov to enter the space station. At that time, a welcoming ceremony is planned to be held with Haig, Gorbunov, Williams, Wilmore and the other seven crew members currently aboard the orbiting laboratory.
Haig and Gorbunov blasted off aboard Crew Dragon on Saturday afternoon from the Cape Canaveral Space Station in Florida. Although they reached their intended orbit without problems, SpaceX later reported that the second, or upper, stage of the Falcon 9 rocket, which powered the first part of its journey, encountered a problem after it separated from the capsule.
“Following the successful launch of Crew-9, the Falcon 9 second stage was jettisoned into the ocean as planned, but suffered an unusual burn during deorbit,” the company said in a post on X. “As a result, the second stage landed safely. in the ocean, but outside the planned area.”
SpaceX said it would temporarily ground the Falcon 9, the world’s most frequently flown rocket, while it analyzed the anomaly. “We will resume launches once we better understand the root cause,” the company said in X’s post.
CNN has contacted the Federal Aviation Administration for comment.
Meanwhile, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule Crew-9 spent about 24 hours traveling in orbit in preparation for docking with the International Space Station. Once safely installed in one of the station’s docking ports, the spacecraft will open its hatch, allowing Hague and Gorbunov to join the other astronauts already aboard the orbiting laboratory.
Together, Haig, Williams, Wilmore and Gorbunov will make up SpaceX’s Crew-9 team. The group will spend about five months aboard the space station before returning home.
Williams and Wilmore first traveled to the International Space Station in early June aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft for a week-long test mission.
But problems with helium leaks and faulty boosters have left engineers scrambling to figure out what went wrong. Ultimately, NASA concluded that Starliner’s problems were not understood well enough for the space agency to allow Williams and Wilmore to return aboard.
However, on September 6, Starliner returned home empty.
After deciding not to return Williams and Wilmore to Earth on Starliner, NASA decided to change SpaceX’s flight plans instead. He decided to recall two other astronauts (veteran spaceflight Stephanie Wilson and Zena Cardman, who was about to make her first flight into space) from the Crew-9 mission to make room for the Starliner crew.
But that meant Williams and Wilmore would have to serve as the original Crew-9 crew, requiring months of routine work on the space station before their return.
Both Williams and Wilmore, veterans of previous missions to the space station, said they have easily adjusted to the idea of remaining in space until next year, with Williams calling the microgravity environment his “happy place.”
The team currently aboard the International Space Station includes Don Pettit and Alexey Ovchinin of NASA, and Ivan Vagner of the Russian space agency Roscosmos. All three arrived at the space station aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft on September 11.
Pettit and Gorbunov traveled aboard a spacecraft developed outside their countries as part of a space-swap agreement between NASA and its Russian counterpart.