Two NASA astronauts who spent almost 10 months in space are coming home. Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams were supposed to stay for about a week, but spacecraft problems kept them on the International Space Station (ISS) longer than planned.
On Friday, Crew-10 blasted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Their arrival clears the way for Wilmore and Williams to return to Earth after their long stay.
New Crew’s journey to Space
The new team includes NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. They lifted off aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft at 7:03 p.m. EDT, riding a Falcon 9 rocket into orbit. The launch from pad 39A put on a spectacular show, with bright flames lighting up the night sky.
Ten minutes after liftoff, the Crew Dragon capsule was released from the rocket’s upper stage and began its journey to the ISS. A camera on the rocket’s second stage captured what NASA described as a piece of insulation floating away. While unusual, NASA confirmed the Crew Dragon was in good shape and ready to dock with the space station. If all goes as planned, the capsule will arrive at the ISS on Saturday night at 11:30 p.m.
Upon arrival, Crew-10 astronauts will be greeted by Crew-9 members, including Wilmore and Williams, and cosmonauts Alexander Gorbunov, Alexsey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner, and NASA astronaut Don Pettit.
“This is a huge mission for Crew-10,” said Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. “They’re all big, but this started back with Crew-9 when we launched that mission with two empty seats reserved for Butch and Suni.”
Wilmore and Sunita launched aboard a Boeing Starliner capsule on June 5, 2024, for the spacecraft’s first piloted test flight. They successfully docked with the ISS, but soon after, the Starliner experienced multiple issues, including helium leaks and thruster malfunctions.
They planned to stay in space for eight days, but NASA and Boeing spent months analyzing the issues to determine if the Starliner was safe for the trip home. By August, Boeing believed the problems were understood, but NASA decided not to take risks. Instead, the astronauts remained aboard the ISS, waiting for another way home.
“Butch and I knew this was a test flight. We expected to find some issues, and we did,” Williams told CBS News. “That wasn’t a surprise. The discussion went over the summer, and as things started unrolling, we understood we might be up here longer.”
Politics and controversy
Former President Donald Trump criticised the Biden administration for the extended mission, saying the astronauts had been “abandoned” in space.
“Biden left them up there,” Trump told reporters on March 6. “We have two astronauts stuck in space. I asked Elon (Musk), ‘Can you get ’em out?’ He said ‘Yes.’ He’s preparing to go up in two weeks.”
Elon Musk claimed he offered to send a rescue mission earlier, but NASA turned it down for political reasons. However, NASA officials denied this, saying they were never aware of such an offer and that the current return plan was the safest option.
Wilmore and Williams have firmly rejected claims that they were “stranded” or “abandoned.”
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