SpaceX sends crew to ISS before returning stranded astronauts
The stranded crew can return no earlier than March 19 (Illustrative photo: wikimedia.by)
On Friday, SpaceX sent a crew to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft. The mission will allow astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been stranded on the ISS, to finally return home, according to Bloomberg.
The Falcon 9 rocket with the Dragon capsule launched shortly after 7:00 p.m. New York time from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
About 10 minutes into the flight, the capsule separated from the upper stage of the rocket, and SpaceX confirmed that the crew was on its way to the ISS. The capsule is expected to arrive for docking at approximately 11:30 p.m. on March 15.
The crew consists of two NASA astronauts, Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, along with Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.
Bloomberg explains that NASA ensures continuous rotational presence on the ISS to manage station operations and research. This means that the Crew-10 astronauts are expected to arrive at the station and undergo a roughly two-day handover period before the current crew, which includes Wilmore and Williams, can depart. Then, Wilmore and Williams will board the capsule already docked at the station and head back to Earth with the other crew members no earlier than March 19.
What preceded this
It should be noted that astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams arrived at the ISS in June last year aboard Boeing Co.'s Starliner spacecraft.
Initially, they were planning to stay for about a week. However, after Starliner encountered technical problems during the journey, NASA stated that it was too risky to return the astronauts home on that spacecraft.
Instead, the space agency announced that the astronauts would return to Earth aboard a SpaceX spacecraft. This, in turn, extended Wilmore and Williams' stay by approximately nine months.
Bloomberg also reports that the incoming Crew-10 will remain on board the ISS until autumn, conducting a series of scientific experiments, including studies on lunar navigation, flammability of materials, and the human body's response to space conditions.
