Spokane astronaut and Crew-10 commander Anne McClain has arrived at the International Space Station. The SpaceX Dragon docked at the station at 9:04 p.m. Pacific Saturday. The 250-mile trek took just shy of 30 hours, despite traveling at speeds as high as 17,000 mph.

For astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, Friday's launch means they are closing in on their flight back to Earth after an unexpected nine months in orbit.

Reaching orbit from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, the newest crew includes NASA’s Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, both military pilots; and Japan’s Takuya Onishi and Russia’s Kirill Peskov, both former airline pilots. They will spend the next six months at the space station, considered the normal stint, after springing Wilmore and Williams free.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 surged up through blue skies to send a crew on its way to International Space Station where the pair of NASA astronauts who flew up last summer on Boeing’s Starliner have

The 2 astronauts were supposed to spend just a week in space when they blasted off last June, but they have been stuck there ever since.

Spokesman-Review reporter Nick Gibson is in Florida this week to report on Anne McClain’s and NASA’s SpaceX launch from the Kennedy Space Center. Follow along in print and online at spokesman.com/sections/return-to-space.