The Crew Dragon astronauts were shown on live TV embracing and hugging their counterparts in zero gravity on the space station shortly after 0545 GMT.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been stuck aboard the orbital lab since June after the Boeing Starliner spacecraft they were testing on its maiden crewed voyage suffered propulsion issues and was deemed unfit to fly them back to Earth.

What was meant to have been a days-long roundtrip for Wilmore and Williams has stretched past nine months.

That is significantly longer than the standard ISS rotation for astronauts of roughly six months.

But it is much shorter than the US space record of 371 days set by NASA astronaut Frank Rubio aboard the ISS in 2023, or the world record held by Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov, who spent 437 continuous days aboard the Mir space station.

Still, the unexpected nature of duo's prolonged stay away from their families -- they had to receive additional clothing and personal care items because they hadn't packed enough -- has garnered interest and sympathy.

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