SpaceX's Crew-10 launch successful; Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore expected to return soon

The SpaceX Dragon Crew 10 spacecraft, which was launched with the aim of returning Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, was successful. The Crew 10 spacecraft took off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a Falcon 9 rocket. The launch was at 4.33 am Indian time (7.03 pm local time). NASA and SpaceX jointly led the launch.

There are 4 new astronauts on board the spacecraft. NASA's own Anne McClain and Nicole Ayers, Takuya Onishi of the Japanese space agency JAXA, and Kirill Peskov of the Russian Roscosmos left for the ISS as part of the Crew 10 mission this morning.

The spacecraft will dock with the ISS at 11.30 pm on Saturday. The spacecraft will return to Earth on Wednesday, March 19, with Sunita and others. If the mission is successful, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been stranded on the International Space Station for months, will be able to return to Earth.

Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore flew from Earth to the International Space Station in June 2024 on Boeing's experimental Starliner spacecraft for an eight-day mission. However, they have been stranded for more than 9 months. A technical problem with the Starliner spacecraft prevented them from returning to Earth at the scheduled time. NASA tried several times to bring them back, but the return trip was postponed due to the risk of a helium leak and damaged thrusters on the Starliner. NASA has since landed the Starliner without a crew.