The NASA and billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX on Friday (native time) launched the Crew-10 mission to carry again stranded astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore.
The Falcon 9 rocket, carrying a Dragon spacecraft on the Crew-10 mission, lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Area Heart.
Have a good time in house, y’all!
#Crew10 lifted off from @NASAKennedy at 7:03pm ET (2303 UTC) on Friday, March 14. pic.twitter.com/9Vf7VVeGev— NASA (@NASA) March 14, 2025
NASA’s veteran astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore had been caught aboard the ISS in June final 12 months after the Boeing Starliner spacecraft they had been testing on its maiden crewed flight developed propulsion points and was deemed unfit to fly them again.
In keeping with the NASA, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket propelled the Dragon spacecraft into orbit carrying 4 astronauts— Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.
Throughout a Query and Reply session on X, hours earlier than launching its mission, NASA mentioned after Crew10 docks with the station on Saturday, March 15, Crew9’s Nick Hague, Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore and Aleksandr Gorbunov are scheduled to return to Earth just a few days later.
What started as a technical failure has additionally spiraled right into a political flashpoint, as President Donald Trump and his shut advisor, Elon Musk — who leads SpaceX — have repeatedly advised that former president Joe Biden “deserted” the pair deliberately and rejected a plan to carry them again sooner.
That accusation precipitated uproar within the house neighborhood, particularly since Musk didn’t present any specifics.
The plan for the duo’s return has been unchanged ever since they had been reassigned to SpaceX’s Crew-9, which arrived in September aboard one other Dragon carrying solely two crew members — as an alternative of the standard 4 — to make room for Wilmore and Williams.
When Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen pointed this out on X, Musk lashed out at him, utilizing a slur for mentally disabled individuals.
Some retired astronauts rushed to Mogensen’s protection — whereas Wilmore appeared to again Musk, saying his feedback will need to have been “factual,” although he admitted he was not aware of any particulars.
Trump, in the meantime, has drawn consideration for his weird remarks in regards to the scenario, referring to Williams, a adorned former naval captain, as “the lady with the wild hair” and speculating in regards to the private dynamic between the 2.
(With enter AFP)