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With floating hugs and smiles all around, the two NASA astronauts who crewed the ill-fated Boeing Starliner greeted their replacements aboard the International Space Station early Sunday morning.

The SpaceX Dragon vehicle carrying the four spacefarers selected for a mission known as Crew-10 successfully docked at the orbital outpost about 28 hours after launching from Florida. All of the 11 astronauts now aboard the station gathered for a short ceremony after the docking more than 260 miles above the Atlantic Ocean.

The arrival of the mission’s crew signals a significant milestone for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who flew to the station in June on the doomed Starliner spacecraft.

The Boeing vehicle meant to fly the pair home left without them in September after NASA determined the troubled spacecraft wasn’t up to the task of transporting a crew. Instead, a SpaceX Dragon arriving at the station later that month with the Crew-9 mission was selected for Wilmore and Williams’ return.

Now that Crew-10 has made it to orbit, the stage is set for Wilmore and Williams to finally return to Earth with the two astronauts comprising Crew-9. That highly-anticipated voyage still won’t happen for a few days, as all the astronauts of Expedition 72, which includes the Starliner crew, will spend some time helping the new arrivals get up to speed on station operations.

Here’s what’s next for the Crew-10 astronauts now that they’ve entered the space station as well as the four astronauts they’re intended to replace:

Crew-10 reaches ISS after launching from Florida on SpaceX Dragon

The Crew-10 mission reached the space station right on time around midnight Eastern Time Saturday night, after launching Friday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.

The crew, under the command of NASA astronaut Anne McClain, also includes NASA pilot Nichole Ayers and two mission specialists from other space agencies: Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the crew members into orbit from Launch Complex 39A before the Dragon capsule they were aboard successfully separated to continue on to the space station.

The spaceflight, the tenth SpaceX crew mission to the international station contracted under NASA’s commercial crew program, successfully began after an initial launch attempt was called off Wednesday. NASA and SpaceX, which jointly operate the Crew-10 mission, waived off the launch due to an issue with the launchpad’s ground system.

Had the mission launched as scheduled, the Crew-10 astronauts would have rendezvoused with the space station early Thursday morning. The reason the voyage will be so much longer following the Friday night launch is because the orbital laboratory is much further away from where the Dragon will be when it enters Earth’s orbit, a NASA spokesman told USA TODAY.

Rewatch Crew-10 open hatch, greet astronauts

The hatch of the Dragon was opened after 1 a.m. Sunday, allowing the crew to exit the vehicle and enter the space station through its Harmony module. Once aboard, the four Crew-10 spacefarers officially greeted the Expedition 72 crew members, including the astronauts who flew aboard the Starliner.

NASA provided a livestream of the poignant moment on its streaming service, NASA+. One by one, the new arrivals floated through the hatch to greet the smiling crew aboard the station.

It was “an amazing journey,” Commander McClain said during the live broadcast after that hatches were opened. “You can hardly even put it into words.”

Peskov, during brief remarks, thanked “all the world’s space industry.”

When will Starliner astronauts return with Crew-9?

The arrival of Crew-10 means Williams and Wilmore will be able to return with Crew-9 as early as Wednesday, March 19 on a separate Dragon already docked at the station, according to NASA.

The Crew-9 mission, which reached the station in late September, included just two crew members instead of four – NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. The decision to send a truncated crew allowed for two extra seats to be available on the Dragon capsule for the Starliner crew.

The tentative return date would allow for a few days for Crew-10 to orient themselves at the space station. The handover period is a crucial process for the outgoing astronauts to help the arriving spacefarers familiarize themselves with their new home and the work taking place, according to NASA.

Once Crew-9 undocks on the Dragon, they would make a splashdown landing off the Florida coast.

Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA TODAY, contributed to this report.

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com