SpaceX Crew-10: Mission Success & Long-Awaited Return!
Great news from the Space Coast! SpaceX's Crew-10 mission blasted off successfully from Kennedy Space Center yesterday at 7:03 PM Eastern. On board are NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan's Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos' Kirill Peskov. They're headed to the International Space Station (ISS) and are expected to dock around 11:30 PM Eastern tonight.
But here's the really cool part of the story: their arrival finally paves the way for NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to come home! You might remember they were only supposed to be up there for a week-long stay... which turned into a nine-month space adventure!
What happened? Well, Williams and Wilmore were on Boeing's Starliner's first crewed flight, designed to show it could safely transport astronauts to orbit. Unfortunately, the Starliner experienced some hiccups – helium leaks and thruster malfunctions, to be exact. NASA decided to send the Starliner back to Earth uncrewed, leaving Williams and Wilmore on the ISS.
Homeward Bound!
Before the Starliner returned, NASA had already planned for Williams and Wilmore to catch a ride back with the SpaceX Crew-9 team. Crew-9 went up with only two astronauts to make room for the stranded pair. After some delays to get a new Dragon spacecraft ready, Crew-10 is now in orbit, and Williams and Wilmore are finally set to return with Crew-9's Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov around March 19th. Safe travels home, astronauts!
Source: Engadget