NASA's Crew-10 mission arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday (Mar 16). The Dragon spacecraft, which was launched aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, is scheduled to bring back stranded astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Willmore on Wednesday (Mar 19).

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The time-lapse video of the spacecraft’s docking at the orbital ISS was shared by NASA astronaut Don Pettit.

“Close Encounter but not of the third kind,” Pettit wrote on X while sharing the video, “Crew 10 docking to Space Station.”

Also read | Sunita Williams’ homecoming: NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 docks at ISS, stranded astronauts to return on...

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Crew-10’s Crew Dragon capsule, Endurance, completed docking with the Harmony module on the space station early Sunday morning (Mar 16) at 12:04 a.m. ET while the two spacecraft were 260 miles (418 kilometres) above the Atlantic Ocean.

The Dragon spacecraft, which was launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Friday (Mar 14), carried four astronauts to the ISS.

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Crew-10 joins space station members

The four crew members included NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. 

Also read | What is 'Baby Feet,' NASA's Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore likely to experience after returning to Earth?

“It’s such a great honour for us to be part of this program,” Crew-10 mission specialist Takuya Onishi of JAXA said shortly after docking. “We have a lot of exciting work ahead of us that we are looking forward to. Again, thank you very much to everybody who helped us to get here.”

Crew-10 astronauts have joined the Expedition 72 crew aboard the space station and are expected to stay there for about six months. Following the handover of duties, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore will return to Earth along with NASA’s Nick Hague and Roscosmos’ Aleksandr Gorbunov.

Sunita Williams and Butch Willmore to return

While Hague and Gorbunov have been staying at the ISS since late September, Williams and Wilmore became stranded on the space orbital lab in June after their Boeing's Starliner spacecraft faced thruster malfunctions.

Also read | 'Stranded' NASA astronauts Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore to return to Earth soon; SpaceX's swap team launches to ISS

While Starliner’s mission was expected to last 10 days, the two astronauts were forced to extend their stay as the spacecraft was deemed too risky to carry the astronauts back home.

Hague, Williams, Wilmore, and Gorbunov are expected to return to Earth in the Crew-9 Dragon on Wednesday (Mar 19), according to NASA officials.

(With inputs from agencies)