October 2, 2024 | 1:06pm A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with Expedition 72 astronauts lifts off from launch complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on September 28, 2024. AFP / Gregg Newton WASHINGTON, United States — The SpaceX crew that will ferry back in February two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station docked with the orbiting laboratory on Sunday, a live stream of the mission showed. The Falcon 9 rocket took off at 1:17 pm from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Saturday, with the Crew-9 mission aboard a Dragon spacecraft making contact with the ISS at 5:30 pm Sunday. After docking was completed, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov boarded the station just after 7:00 p.m., embracing their floating colleagues. "I just want to say welcome to our new compadres from Dragon Freedom," said station commander Suni Williams, who is one of the two stranded astronauts. "Alex, welcome to the International Space Station, and Nick, welcome back home." When Hague and Gorbunov return from the space station in February, they will bring back space veterans Williams and Butch Wilmore, whose stay on the ISS was prolonged for months due to problems with their Boeing-designed Starliner spacecraft. The newly developed Starliner was making its first crewed flight when it delivered Wilmore and Williams to the ISS in June.