The space ‘exile’ of the Starliner’s Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams is one step closer to an end, as the Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft has arrived at the launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The ‘Endurance’ will carry a new crew of astronauts to the International Space Station, who will relieve Wilmore and Williams to return to Earth after 9 months in a mission that should have lasted 8 days.
UPI reported:
“The Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft is scheduled to launch no earlier than March 12 and will shuttle the Crew-10 astronauts aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The arrival of the module at the Florida launch pad signifies progress for SpaceX, which experienced delays getting it ready for launch.
NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency [taikonaut] Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov will be on board and are scheduled to be in space for at least six months. They will replace the Crew-9, including astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who arrived at the station last June for a 10-day stay but had to remain aboard the ISS when the Boeing Starliner sent to retrieve them was deemed unsafe to bring them back to Earth.”
According to NASA’s blog:
“Four crew members are preparing to launch to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission to perform research, technology demonstrations, and maintenance activities aboard the microgravity laboratory.”
Crew-10 is set to launch at 7:48 p.m. EDT on March 12. It will fly towards the ISS for 14 hours until it catches up and prepares to dock.
LIVE: The crew of NASA’s @SpaceX #Crew10 mission to the @Space_Station take questions before lifting off into low Earth orbit next week. https://t.co/wqxyQ39x2e
— NASA (@NASA) March 8, 2025
Space.com reported:
“The arrival of Crew-10 to the ISS will mark an imminent departure for the Starliner duo and the rest of Crew-9. As is typical with handovers on the space station, crews overlap to ensure a smooth transition of station maintenance and research responsibilities while the new residents find their space legs.
Crew-9 launched with Hague and Gorbunov and two empty seats for Williams and Wilmore on the return journey, aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Freedom. Freedom has been docked to the ISS since its arrival in late September, and will serve as the ride home for all four astronauts a week or so following Crew-10’s docking.”
Endurance is a Dragon spacecraft that has already flown three SpaceX astronaut missions — Crew-3, Crew-5 and Crew-7.
Is has been readied for launch and is now in SpaceX’s hangar at Launch Complex-39A, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, in Florida.
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