MERRITT ISLAND, Fla.—Another SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched into twilight skies above Florida’s east coast on March 14, sending NASA’s (National Aeronautic and Space Administration) Crew-10 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) for a four-month stay and the start of the 73rd long-duration liveaboard mission in nearly 25 years.
Onboard SpaceX’s Dragon “Endurance” are NASA astronaut and active-duty Army Colonel Anne McClain (Crew-10 commander), NASA astronaut and U.S. Air Force Major Nichole Ayers (pilot), JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi (mission specialist), and Russia’s Roscosmos Cosmonaut Kirill Peskov (mission specialist).
They are scheduled to dock with the orbiting laboratory around 11:30 p.m. on March 15. Their arrival will signal the final countdown for the return of NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.
Wilmore and Williams had their planned eight-day mission grow into more than nine months after technical malfunctions arose during their test flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner and left them stranded on the space station.
The launch comes two days late after a hydraulic issue was discovered on one of the clamp arms holding the rocket up on March 12, causing the launch to be scrubbed. NASA then announced that mission managers decided to waive an attempt to make the first backup launch attempt on March 13 due to precipitation and high winds forecast along the spacecraft’s flight path.
While some controversy surrounded their extended stay, NASA officials said they made the best choice possible given the availability of equipment and the necessity to continue ongoing ISS mission objectives.
Wilmore and Williams became part of the resident Expedition 72 crew, with Williams even serving as ISS commander until March 7. Meanwhile, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov launched a unique two-person crew for Crew-9, bringing seats with custom lining for Williams and Wilmore, as well as extra spacesuits for re-entry.
Crew-9 docked with the ISS on Sept. 29, 2024, which means Williams and Wilmore have had their ride home ready to go for months. However, there was a larger goal that they needed to work toward as a necessary part of Expedition 72.
Now, they, as well as Hague and Gorbunov, will soon be relieved of their duties, pending a multi-day “handover” with Crew-10 that basically briefs and trains their replacement to continue ongoing experiments and maintenance. Normally a five-day process, this transition will be shortened to two.
All four seats of the Crew-9 Dragon capsule will then be filled for a return journey, splashing down off the Florida coast, returning home no earlier than March 19. However, that return date is still pending weather conditions.
This will be a second visit to the ISS for McClain and Onishi, who will become the third Japanese astronaut to command the orbiting laboratory. Meanwhile, Ayers and Peskov are going to space for the first time, with Ayers being the first member of her astronaut class to go.
Ayers, McClain, Onishi, and Peskov will initially be a part of Expedition 72, joining the resident Soyuz crew: cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin, who assumed command after Williams, Ivan Vagner, and NASA astronaut Don Pettit.
ISS Expedition missions have always changed over with the arrival and departure of the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. So, Expedition 73 will officially begin after NASA Astronaut Jonny Kim and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky arrive, despite the mission’s first commander, Onishi, already being aboard.
The next Soyuz mission is scheduled to launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, launching as early as April 8.
While aboard the station, Crew-10 will conduct technical and physiological experiments, such as using current station hardware to test backup lunar navigation software, talking to students using the onboard ham radio, and using the astronauts’ own bodies to further study how the human body and mind change during long-duration spaceflights.
Specifically, crew members will participate in a study called “Drain Brain 2.0,” which will study how blood flows from the brain to the heart in microgravity and could identify how the body ensures proper blood flow while having to compensate for the lack of gravity. These results are hoped to benefit astronauts on future space missions and people on Earth suffering from cardiovascular issues.
McClain will be participating in NASA’s Complement of Integrated Protocols for Human Exploration Research (CIPHER) investigation, contributing her body to studying the physiological and psychological changes seen in space.
She said it was the human sciences that she was most excited about regarding this mission, as well as seeing how the findings help humanity go further into space.
“We don’t get to learn anything about the human body in space unless an astronaut has volunteered for that to experiment,” she said. “And so I’m most excited to, you know, donate my body to science.”
At the completion of their mission, Crew-10 is slated to be the first mission to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California. SpaceX is working to establish three new recovery zones off the coast of Los Angeles, Oceanside, and San Diego. Its recovery vessel, “Shannon,” will be based out of Long Beach.
McClain chalked up more than 200 days in space, including 13 hours and 8 minutes of spacewalk time on her last mission to the ISS, and is only a small part of the station’s legacy of ensuring a continuous human presence in space for nearly a quarter of a century.
NASA will celebrate the 25-year milestone this November.
Ken Bowersox, associate administrator of the Space Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said on March 7 that the agency is looking to continue flying to the ISS with commercial and international partners until 2030, at which point a modified SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is contracted to execute a controlled descent into the atmosphere.
However, at this time, Russia has only agreed to continue its partnership with the United States until 2028.
