The Crew-10 mission arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, just over a day after blasting off. The astronauts are set to undock and return to Earth in days
SpaceX Crew-10 successfully docks at ISS to relieve crew
Two NASA astronauts who have been stuck in orbit for nine months have now been reached by SpaceX Falcon 9 rescuers, paving the way for their return to Earth.
The Crew-10 mission arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, just over a day after blasting off. The four newcomers – representing the US, 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.
The astronauts expected the mission to last just one week when they launched on Boeing’s first astronaut flight, but earlier this month, they hit the nine-month mark. 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.
Mr Wilmore swung open the space station’s hatch and then rang the ship’s bell as the new arrivals floated in one by one and were greeted with hugs and handshakes. “It was a wonderful day. Great to see our friends arrive,” Ms Williams told Mission Control.
Their 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 Mr Wilmore, Ms 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.
When Crew10 departed this week, NASA wrote on X: “Have a great time in space, y’all! #Crew10 lifted off from @NASAKennedy at 7:03pm ET (2303 UTC) on Friday, March 14.” While SpaceX said: “Liftoff of Crew-1.”
NASA previously said in a statement: “NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov will fly to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 rocket. A regular crew rotation mission aboard the orbiting laboratory, the Crew-10 team will be part of the Expedition 72/73 crew while on station where they will perform dozens of science experiments during their several-month stay in orbit. After arriving at the station for docking about 11:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 15, the Crew-10 members will spend a couple of days familiarizing themselves with the station’s systems.
“Crew-10 will rotate roles with NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 crew, including agency astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. The Crew-9 mission, which has a separate Dragon spacecraft already docked to the space station, will then undock from the orbiting laboratory and return the Earth. Crew-9 undock is scheduled for no earlier than Wednesday, March 19.”
