New York, Mar 16: SpaceX's Crew-10 mission successfully docked at the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday, bringing hope for the return of two NASA astronauts -- Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore -- who have been stuck in orbit for months.

The space capsule, launched on Friday from Texas, arrived at the ISS at 12:05 a.m. EST (9:35 am IST). SpaceX's Dragon capsule took about 28.5 hours to travel from Earth to the ISS.

The spacecraft carried four astronauts -- Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers from NASA, Takuya Onishi from Japan's JAXA, and Kirill Peskov from Russia's Roscosmos.

They will spend the next few days familiarising themselves with the ISS alongside NASA astronauts Williams and Wilmore.

The crew is expected to enter the ISS after 1.05 a.m. EST (10.35 a.m. IST), where astronaut Wilmore will greet them.

Williams and Wilmore have been stranded on the ISS since June due to technical issues with Boeing's Starliner spacecraft.

Their return was scheduled after the eight-day mission, but persistent problems delayed their journey home.

Plans to send them back after Crew-9's arrival in August were also scrapped due to the lack of an emergency escape pod.

Now, with Crew-10 successfully docked, Williams and Wilmore will finally get a chance to return to Earth along with Crew-9.

According to SpaceX founder Elon Musk, their return flight is expected to begin in the coming days.

Crew-10's mission was initially planned for Wednesday evening but was postponed due to an issue with a ground support clamp arm on the rocket.

Despite the delay, the mission is now back on track, ensuring that the long-awaited return of the stranded astronauts is just around the corner.

Earlier, the astronaut duo were scheduled to return to Earth by March-end but it was preponed after US President Donald Trump urged SpaceX Musk to bring them back early.

(IANS)

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