A SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket is standing at the launch complex 39A, where it is scheduled to carry the crew of four to the International Space Station from Kennedy Space Center on Cape Canverals, Florida, US, March 11, 2025.
Steve Nessius | Roots
NASA and SpaceX on Friday launched a long -awaited crew for the International Space Station, which will allow them to bring American astronauts Buch Wilmor and Sun. Williams home, who have been trapped in the orbital laboratory for nine months.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket took four astronauts at ET (2303 GMT) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7:03 pm, which will replace Wilmor and Williams, both Veteran NASA Astronauts and retired US Navy Test Pilots and were already going to fly to Bing’s Starlinear capsule.
But during the flight, problems with Starlineer’s propulsion system forced the expansion of his employed eight-day stay as NASA considered him very risky to fly homes on crafts, which returned to empty earth in September.
Otherwise a regular crew rotation flight, Friday’s crew -10 mission is also a long -awaited important step to bring the astronaut pair back to Earth. He is scheduled to depart on the station on 19 March after the creation of crew -10 astronauts on Saturday night. The mission is entangled in politics as President Donald Trump and his advisor Elon Musk, who is also the CEO of SpaceX, without evidence, the former President Joe Biden left astronauts at the station for political reasons.
Wilmore said, “We were ready to stay for a long time, even though we plan to stay short,” Wilmore said, he said that NASA’s decision was decided to put him on ISS until the arrival of Cruce -10 was affected by politics.
“This is everything about your country’s human spaceflight program,” he said, “is planning for unknown, unexpected contingencies. And we did so.” NASA says that two astronauts have to stay on ISS to maintain their minimum staffing level.
After viewing its mission in a normal NASA rotation for ISS, Wilmor and Williams are doing scientific research and regular maintenance with other astronauts.
‘Unusual’ flight preparation process
Demand for Trump and Musk’s earlier return was an unusual intervention, and NASA brought forward the crew -10 mission from 26 March, a delayed SpaceX capsule for one that would soon be ready.
The pressure of Musk and Trump hangs on NASA’s preparation and safety process that usually follows a well -defined course.
Steve Stitch, a program manager of NASA’s commercial crew, stated that SpaceX’s “Rapid Motion” needed NASA to change some methods that confirm flight safety. The agency was to address some “late-breaking” issues, NASA’s head of space operations Kane Boversox told reporters, including a recent checking fuel leakage at the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch and a coating decline on some the thrusters of the dragon crew capsules.
Boversox said it was difficult for NASA to live with SpaceX: “We are not as agile as they are, but we are working well together.”
When the new crew rides the station, Willmore, Williams and two others – NASA astronaut Nick Hegs and Russian Cosmonot Alexandra Gorbunov – can return to Earth in a capsule that has been connected to the station since September, which is part of the former crew -9 mission.
If Crew -10 launches according to the plan on Friday, it will do the ISS at 11:30 pm on Saturday (0330 GMT Sunday), followed by a traditional handover ceremony that will allow for the departure of crew -9 crew on 19 March.
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