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With weather conditions \u201cnear perfect\u201d Wednesday, NASA is set to launch four \u201cCrew-10\u201d astronauts to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX rocket and rescue two astronauts who have been living in space for months. <\/p>\n
The astronauts\u2019 arrival at the orbiting laboratory will clear the way for Crew-9 to return to Earth, including NASA astronauts Barry \u201cButch\u201d Wilmore and Sunita \u201cSuni\u201d Williams. The pair have been on board since last June. <\/p>\n
Lift off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and a Dragon spacecraft is slated for 7:48 p.m. EDT from Florida\u2019s Kennedy Space Center. A NASA stream of the event was already live a little more than three hours beforehand. If all goes well, the crew is expected to dock at the space station by approximately 6 a.m. on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The international group on Crew-10 includes NASA\u2019s Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency\u2019s Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos\u2019 Kirill Peskov.<\/p>\n
\u201cGame Day,\u201d McClain wrote in a post on the social media platform X.<\/p>\n
Four Crew-10 astronauts are set to lift off from Earth on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and a Dragon capsule. The launch is scheduled for 7:48 p.m. EDT. After the astronauts arrive to the orbiting laboratory on Thursday, NASA\u2019s Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore are expected to come home (AP)Crew-10 is the tenth crew rotation mission of SpaceX\u2019s human space transportation system and its 11th flight with astronauts. <\/p>\n
The space agency said that when the Dragon capsule docks at the station, Crew-9 will familiarize their fellow astronauts with the station\u2019s ongoing science and maintenance work. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe crew will spend several months aboard the orbiting laboratory conducting spacewalks, research demonstrations and experiments for the benefit of humanity and deep space exploration,\u201d NASA explained. <\/p>\n
After a brief handover, and pending good weather, NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Williams, Wilmore, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov will head back home. Gorbunov and Hague came to the space station on a mission after Williams and Wilmore arrived. <\/p>\n
The Crew-10 astronauts include NASA\u2019s Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency\u2019s Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos\u2019 Kirill Peskov (NASA Commercial Crew\/X)\u201cI’m looking forward to seeing my classmate, Expedition 59 crewmate, spacewalking partner, and friend [Anne McClain] float through the hatch. Go Crew-10!\u201d wrote Hague. <\/p>\n
Williams and Wilmore have spent an extra, and initially unexpected, nine months in zero gravity following issues after their Boeing Crew Flight Test: the first crewed mission of the capsule. The capsule returned to Earth without them last September in an unexpected uncrewed return after technical difficulties. That left Williams and Wilmore in space for longer than intended. <\/p>\n
While the astronauts have refuted continuous narratives that have been \u201cstuck\u201d on the space station, President Donald Trump has repeatedly placed blame on the Biden administration for \u201c[allowing it] to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe love you, and we\u2019re coming up to get you, and you shouldn\u2019t have been up there so long,\u201d Trump said earlier this month.<\/p>\n
Williams and Wilmore were originally set to return to Earth from the International Space Station in June. The duo, former Navy captains, have pushed back on the narrative that they were \u2018stuck\u2019 in space (NASA)SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who now has an advisory role in the Trump administration, also previously claimed on social media that his aerospace company could have brought the duo back months earlier. Trump has pleaded with Musk to rescue the astronauts. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was offered, what was not offered, who it was offered to, how that process went \u2014 that\u2019s information that we simply don\u2019t have,\u201d Wilmore said in a recent briefing to reporters. <\/p>\n
He and Williams have made the best of their situation.<\/p>\n
“Of course, you know, we came up here thinking we’d be only here for a little while and do our test flight, but then the added time here has allowed us to do all the science experiments,” Williams told AccuWeather. “We’ve gone through a lot of holidays together. We’ve learned how to make cakes up here for each other. So it’s been a lot of fun actually.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inboxSign up to our free IndyTech newsletterSign up to our free IndyTech newsletter I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our\u00a0privacy policy With weather conditions \u201cnear perfect\u201d Wednesday, NASA is set to launch four \u201cCrew-10\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n