The NASA and billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX on Friday (local time) started the Crew-10 leave oution to convey back stranded astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore.
The Falcon 9 rocket, carrying a Dragon spaceoriginate on the Crew-10 leave oution, lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Cgo in.
Have a wonderful time in space, y’all!
#Crew10 lifted off from @NASAKennedy at 7:03pm ET (2303 UTC) on Friday, March 14. pic.twitter.com/9Vf7VVeGev— NASA (@NASA) March 14, 2025
NASA’s veteran astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore were stuck aboard the ISS in June last year after the Boeing Starliner spaceoriginate they were testing on its mhelpen crewed fweightless enhugeed propulsion rerents and was deemed invivacious to fly them back.
According to the NASA, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket propelled the Dragon spaceoriginate into orbit carrying four astronauts— Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.
During a Question and Answer session on X, hours before starting its leave oution, NASA shelp after Crew10 docks with the station on Saturday, March 15, Crew9’s Nick Hague, Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore and Aleksandr Gorbunov are scheduled to return to Earth a restricted days defercessitater.
What began as a technical flunkure has also spiraled into a political flashpoint, as Pdwellnt Donald Trump and his seal advisor, Elon Musk — who directs SpaceX — have repeatedly proposeed that establisher pdwellnt Joe Biden “leaveed” the pair intentionassociate and declineed a set up to convey them back sooner.
That accusation caparticipated uproar in the space community, especiassociate since Musk did not provide any particulars.
The set up for the duo’s return has been unalterd ever since they were realloted to SpaceX’s Crew-9, which get tod in September aboard another Dragon carrying only two crew members — instead of the normal four — to originate room for Wilmore and Williams.
When Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen pointed this out on X, Musk lashed out at him, using a slur for menhighy disabled people.
Some reweary astronauts rushed to Mogensen’s defense — while Wilmore materializeed to back Musk, saying his comments must have been “factual,” though he confessted he was not privy to any details.
Trump, unbenevolentwhile, has drawn attention for his bizarre retags about the situation, referring to Williams, a decorated establisher naval captain, as “the woman with the untamed hair” and speculating about the personal dynamic between the two.
(With input AFP)