NASA's stuck astronauts welcome their newly arrived replacements to the space station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Just over a day after blasting off, a SpaceX crew capsule arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, delivering the replacements for NASA’s two stuck astronauts.

The four newcomers — representing the U.S., Japan and Russia — will spend the next few days learning the station’s ins and outs from Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. Then the two will strap into their own SpaceX capsule later this week, one that has been up there since last year, to close out an unexpected extended mission that began last June.

Wilmore and Williams expected to be gone just a week when they launched on Boeing’s first astronaut flight. They hit the nine-month mark earlier this month.

The Boeing Starliner capsule encountered so many problems that NASA insisted it come back empty, leaving its test pilots behind to wait for a SpaceX lift.

While the seven space station residents prepared for the new arrivals, one of the Russians — Ivan Vagner — briefly put on an alien mask in a lighthearted moment. Wilmore swung open the space station's hatch and rang the ship's bell as the new crew floated in one by one and were greeted with hugs and handshakes..

“It was a wonderful day. Great to see our friends arrive,” Williams told Mission Control.

Wilmore's and Williams' ride arrived back in late September with a downsized crew of two and two empty seats reserved for the leg back. But more delays resulted when their replacements’ brand new capsule needed extensive battery repairs. An older capsule took its place, pushing up their return by a couple weeks to mid-March.

Weather permitting, the SpaceX capsule carrying Wilmore, Williams and two other astronauts will undock from the space station no earlier than Wednesday and splash down off Florida's coast.

Until then, there will be 11 aboard the orbiting lab, representing the U.S., Russia and Japan.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

REMOVES REFERENCE TO NICK HAGUE - This image provided by NASA shows one of space station astronauts wearing a grey alien mask before greeting the crew of the arriving SpaceX Dragon Capsule at the International Space Station, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (NASA via AP)

This image provided by NASA shows astronaut Nick Hague greeting the arriving SpaceX Dragon Capsule wearing a grey alien mask after a SpaceX capsule docked with the International Space Station, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (NASA via AP)

This image made from video by NASA shows astronauts, including Nichole Ayers, center left, greeting each other after a SpaceX capsule docked with the International Space Station, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (NASA via AP)

This image made from video by NASA shows astronauts, including Suni Williams, center, greeting each other after a SpaceX capsule docked with the International Space Station, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (NASA via AP)

This image made from video by NASA shows astronauts, including Takuya Onishi, center, greeting each other after the SpaceX capsule docked with the International Space Station, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (NASA via AP)

This image made from video by NASA shows astronauts greeting each other after a SpaceX capsule docked with the International Space Station, Sunday, March 16, 2025. Top row from left: Nick Hague, Alexander Gorbunov, Suni Williams, Alexei Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner. Bottom row from left: Butch Wilmore, Takuya Onishi, Anne McClain, Kirill Peskov, Nichole Ayers and Don Pettit. (NASA via AP)

This image made from video by NASA shows astronauts Don Pettit, bottom center, hugging Kirill Peskov as astronauts greet each other after a SpaceX capsule docked with the International Space Station, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (NASA via AP)

This image made from video by NASA shows Russian astronaut Alexei Ovchinin, left, Butch Wilmore, center, and Suni Williams wait to greet newly arrived astronauts after the SpaceX capsule docked with the International Space Station, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (NASA via AP)

This image made from video by NASA shows the International Space Station as the SpaceX capsule closes in for docking, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (NASA via AP)

This image made from video by NASA shows a SpaceX capsule carrying four astronauts on final approach to the International Space Station before docking on Sunday, March 16, 2025. (NASA via AP)

This image made from video by NASA shows the docking of the SpaceX capsule to the International Space Station Sunday, March 16, 2025. (NASA via AP)

Crew10 members, from left, cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, astronaut Nichole Ayers, astronaut Anne McClain and JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi leave the Operations and Checkout building before heading to Launch Pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., for a mission to the International Space Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)

CAIRO (AP) — The United States and Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen are both vowing escalation after the U.S. launched airstrikes to deter the rebels from attacking military and commercial vessels on one of the world's busiest shipping corridors.

The Houthi-run Health Ministry said the overnight U.S. strikes killed at least 53 people, including five women and two children, and wounded almost 100 in the capital of Sanaa and other provinces, including Saada, the rebels’ stronghold on the border with Saudi Arabia.

“We’re not going to have these people controlling which ships can go through and which ones cannot. And so your question is, how long will this go on? It will go on until they no longer have the capability to do that," Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS on Sunday. He said these are not the one-off retaliation strikes the Biden administration carried out after Houthi attacks.

President Donald Trump on Saturday vowed to use “overwhelming lethal force” until the Houthis cease their attacks, and warned that Tehran would be held “fully accountable” for their actions.

The Houthis have repeatedly targeted international shipping in the Red Sea, sinking two vessels, in what they call acts of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel has been at war with Hamas, another Iranian ally.

The attacks stopped when a Israel-Hamas ceasefire took hold in January — a day before Trump took office — but last week the Houthis said they would renew attacks against Israeli vessels after Israel cut off the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza this month.

There have been no Houthi attacks reported since then.

The overnight airstrikes were one of the most extensive attacks against the Houthis since the war in Gaza began in October 2023.

Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Waltz, on Sunday told ABC that the strikes “actually targeted multiple Houthi leaders and took them out.” He didn't identify them or give evidence. Rubio said some Houthi facilities had been destroyed.

The Houthis’ political bureau has said the rebels will respond to the U.S. strikes and “meet escalation with escalation.”

The rebels on Sunday claimed to have targeted the USS Harry S. Truman carrier strike group with missiles and a drone, but two U.S. officials told The Associated Press they were not tracking anything. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations.

The spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a statement called for “utmost restraint and a cessation of all military activities,” while warning of the “grave risks” to the dire humanitarian situation in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest nation.

Rubio said that over the past 18 months the Houthis had attacked the U.S. Navy “directly” 174 times and targeted commercial shipping 145 times using “guided precision anti-ship weaponry.”

The attacks sparked the most serious combat the U.S. Navy had seen since World War II.

On Sunday, the head of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Hossein Salami, denied his country was involved in the Houthis' attacks, saying it “plays no role in setting the national or operational policies” of the militant groups it is allied with across the region, according to state-run TV.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, writing on X, urged the U.S. to halt its airstrikes and said Washington cannot dictate Iran's foreign policy.

The U.S. and others have long accused Iran of providing military aid to the rebels. The U.S. Navy has seized Iranian-made missile parts and other weaponry it said was bound for the Houthis.

The United States, Israel and Britain previously hit Houthi-held areas in Yemen, but the new operation was conducted solely by the U.S. It was the first strike on the Houthis under the second Trump administration.

The USS Harry S. Truman carrier strike group, which includes the carrier, three Navy destroyers and one cruiser, is in the Red Sea and was part of the mission. The USS Georgia cruise missile submarine has also been operating in the region.

Associated Press writers Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, and Tara Copp and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

In this photo taken from video released by Ansar Allah Media Office via Al Masirah TV channel shows a being taken for treatment at a hospital in Saada, Yemen, Saturday, March 15, 2025 following airstrikes over multiple targets in the country. The Houthi-run Health Ministry said the overnight strikes killed at least 31 people, including women and children, and wounded over 100 in the capital of Sanaa and the northern province of Saada, the rebels' stronghold on the border with Saudi Arabia.( Al Masirah TV via AP)

In this photo taken from video released by Ansar Allah Media Office via Al Masirah TV channel shows a girl being treated at a hospital in Saada, Yemen, Saturday, March 15, 2025 following airstrikes over multiple targets in the country. The Houthi-run Health Ministry said the overnight strikes killed at least 31 people, including women and children, and wounded over 100 in the capital of Sanaa and the northern province of Saada, the rebels' stronghold on the border with Saudi Arabia.( Al Masirah TV via AP)

In this photo taken from video released by Ansar Allah Media Office via Al Masirah TV channel shows a wounded child being taken for treatment at a hospital in Saada, Yemen, Saturday, March 15, 2025 following airstrikes over multiple targets in the country. The Houthi-run Health Ministry said the overnight strikes killed at least 31 people, including women and children, and wounded over 100 in the capital of Sanaa and the northern province of Saada, the rebels' stronghold on the border with Saudi Arabia.( Al Masirah TV via AP)

This image taken from video provided by the U.S. Navy shows an aircraft launching from the USS Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea before airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (U.S. Navy via AP)

Yemenis clean debris in front of their shops after a U.S. airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)

Yemenis clean debris in front of their shops after a U.S. airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)

Yemenis clean debris in front of their shops after a U.S. airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)

Yemenis clean debris in front of their shops after a U.S. airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)

This image taken from video provided by the U.S. Navy shows an aircraft launching from the USS Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea before airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (U.S. Navy via AP)

This image taken from video provided by the U.S. Navy shows an aircraft launching from the USS Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea before airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (U.S. Navy via AP)

This image taken from video provided by the U.S. Navy shows an aircraft launching from the USS Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea before airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (U.S. Navy via AP)