Live: NASA Crew-10 enters space station, welcomed with hugs and handshakes
Sunita Williams, who is stranded with Barry Wilmore on the ISS, will return to Earth after spending nine long months in space
The NASA-SpaceX Crew-10 mission has successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) at 9.40 am IST on Sunday, March 16.
After an hour and 45 minutes, the SpaceX Crew-10 members then joined the station's Expedition 72 crew after the hatch was opened.
The Expedition 72 crew of NASA astronauts are Nick Hague, Don Petitt, Sunita Williams, and Butch Wilmore, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Aleksandr Gorbunov, Alexey Ovchinin, and Ivan Vagner.
The Crew 10 is a replacement crew, onboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, and it took off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 4.33am IST on March 15.
Return of US astronauts
The successful arrival of Crew10 on ISS is a major development since it will pave the way for stranded US astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore to return home to Earth, after spending nine months in space for a mission that was to be much shorter.
Their stay in space got extended for an indefinite time after the Boeing Starliner spacecraft that took them to the ISS had developed issues. Now, they will return on SpaceX Dragon's Freedom capsule along with Crew-9 members Nick Hague (NASA) and Aleksandr Gorbunov (Roscosmos).
NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, who are part of the SpaceX Crew-10 mission, is a replacement crew.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket carrying the members of Crew-10 took off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 4.33am IST on March 15.
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Live Updates
- 16 March 2025 4:52 AM GMT
Crew 10 members, from left, astronaut Nichole Ayers, cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, astronaut Anne McClain and JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi heading to Launch Pad 39-A at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., for a mission to the International Space Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, March 14, 2025. Photo: AP/PTI
Source : AP
- 16 March 2025 4:29 AM GMT
NASA's stuck astronauts welcome newly arrived replacements to space station
Just over a day after blasting off, a SpaceX crew capsule arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, delivering the replacements for NASA's two stuck astronauts.
The four newcomers — representing the US, Japan and Russia — will spend the next few days learning the station's ins and outs from Butch Wilmore and Indian-American Sunita Williams.
Then the two will strap into their own SpaceX capsule later this week to close out an unexpected extended mission that began last June.
Wilmore and Williams expected to be gone just a week when they launched on Boeing's first astronaut flight. They hit the nine-month mark earlier this month.
The Boeing Starliner capsule encountered so many problems that NASA insisted it come back empty, leaving its test pilots behind to wait for a SpaceX lift.
Their ride arrived in late September with a downsized crew of two and two empty seats reserved for the leg back. But more delays resulted when their replacements' brand new capsule needed extensive battery repairs. An older capsule took its place, pushing up their return by a couple weeks to mid-March.
Weather permitting, the SpaceX capsule carrying Wilmore, Williams and two other astronauts will undock from the space station no earlier than Wednesday and splash down off Florida's coast.
- 16 March 2025 4:25 AM GMT
Crew 10 to enter ISS at 10.35 am
Space-X and NASA engineers celebrated in their Earth-bound offices as the Crew-10 capsule successfully latched onto the ISS docking port.
The arriving crew plans to enter the ISS after 10.35 am IST
American Astronaut Butch Willmore is expected to greet the arriving crew members as the hatch finally opens onto the space station.
- 16 March 2025 4:20 AM GMT
Crew 10 members to undergo pressurisation in the area between the Dragon hatch and the ISS hatch.
- 16 March 2025 4:20 AM GMT
When is Sunita Williams headed for Earth?
Williams and Butch Wilmore will leave ISS on March 19 alongside NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
- 16 March 2025 4:12 AM GMT
Crew 10 is the replacement crew for Crew-9 which is expected to return on March 19 and will carry Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore to Earth.
