SpaceX Crew-9 Mission Docks with ISS

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who were stranded on the ISS due to problems with their Boeing Starliner spacecraft, were successfully reached by SpaceX's Crew-9 mission. The Crew Dragon capsule, carrying NASA's Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov, docked with the ISS after launching from Cape Canaveral. SpaceX has paused Falcon 9 launches to investigate an off-nominal deorbit burn during the mission. The Crew Dragon will stay docked until February, extending Wilmore and Williams' mission to over eight months. NASA continues to inspect the Starliner while emphasizing that Boeing is not being written off despite the spacecraft's thruster failures and helium leaks. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson praised the mission's operational flexibility and the successful launch.