NASA Stack Astronaut Welcome Replacement has arrived at SpaceX Capsule Space Station

SpaceX capsules delivered four astronauts to the International Space Station early Sunday, allowing a pair of packed NASA astronauts to return to Earth.

NASA’s Butchwillmore and Sniwilliams are able to return home nine months later on a mission that lasted only a week after its launch on Boeing’s first astronaut flight, urging NASA to empty the Starliner.

Crew-10 astronaut SpaceX Crew Dragon capsules docked at the station at 12:04am on Sunday, about 29 hours after it began at 7:03pm on Friday at 7:03pm.

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Four new arrivals representing the US, Japan and Russia will spend several days learning about the Wilmore and Williams stations. Four NASA astronauts Anne McLain and Nicole Ayers, Japanese astronaut onishi and Russian astronaut Kiril Peskov are scheduled to stay at the station for about six months.

Later this week, Willmore and Williams will enter their own SpaceX capsules that have been there since last year to close out their missions that began last year and last June.

Wilmore and Williams are scheduled to leave the station at 4am Wednesday before jumping off the Florida coast.

The Hague and Golbunov flew to the station in September with a Crew Dragon capsule with two empty seats for Wilmore and Williams. The aircraft is installed at the station once it arrives.

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 crew pilot Nichole Ayers and Commander Anne McClain Anne McClain, and Cosmonaut Mission Specialist Kirill Peskov, Roscosmos in Russia, on Friday, March 14, 2025. (Reuters)

Stuck astronauts are doing scientific research and performing routine maintenance.

Williams told reporters earlier this month that he looks forward to going home to meet his family and two dogs.

“It was a roller coaster for them, but perhaps a little more than we do,” she said.

Former NASA astronaut Leroy Chiao appeared on the Fox News Channel to discuss the arrival of Crew 10.

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NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 crew member, Cosmonaut Mission Specialist Kirill Peskov of Roscosmos in Russia, US pilot Nichole Ayers and Commander Anne McClain, and on Friday, March 14, 2025, Japanese Jakusa mission specialist Onisha (Reuters)

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“This isn’t like a movie. You don’t just dock and open the hatch… it takes a while to do all the leak checks. Everything reaches thermal equilibrium and make sure the pressure fluctuations are due to temperature changes,” he said. “And they open hatching, the crew will be welcomed on board and everyone will be blessed.”

“So this seems like a completely perfect and successful mission so far,” he continued. “And of course, Sunny and Butch are looking forward to taking them, handovers, then boarding the spaceship with their crew and returning to Earth in a few days.”

Reuters contributed to this report.