Title: NASA Reschedules Astronauts‘ Return Home from ISS; Crew-10 Mission Expected to Launch in March 2025
In a recent announcement, NASA delayed the return of astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS). The space agency has rescheduled their departure for March 2025, following the Crew-10 mission launch.
In a blog post released on Tuesday, December 17, 2024, NASA stated that the upcoming crew exchange mission to the ISS, initially planned for February, has been postponed until late March 2025. This delay accommodates the completion of SpaceX’s new Dragon spacecraft. The Dragon is a crewed vehicle capable of transporting up to seven astronauts to low Earth orbit.
"The design, assembly, testing, and final integration of a new spacecraft is a meticulous process that requires close attention to detail," said Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, speaking to Live Science on Tuesday, December 24, 2024.
The postponement extends Wilmore and Williams’ stay at the ISS, although their tenure currently does not set any records. Their original 10-day mission aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft was extended after the vehicle experienced thrust issues during its approach to the ISS. Starliner was subsequently returned to Earth unmanned in September 2024.
While Wilmore and Williams are now long-term residents of the ISS, their duration falls short of the record held by astronaut Scott Kelly. Kelly spent 340 days aboard the ISS from 2015 to 2016 as part of the Twins Study alongside his identical twin brother, Mark Kelly. In 2023, astronaut Frank Rubio also unintentionally spent a full year in orbit due to a Soyuz spacecraft leak that prevented his scheduled return.
The Crew-10 mission will carry four new crew members: NASA’s Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA’s Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos’ Kirill Peskov. Upon their arrival, they will assume duties from Wilmore and Williams, who will then board a Soyuz spacecraft with two other crew members, NASA’s Nick Hague and Roscosmos’ Aleksandr Gorbunov, and return to Earth.
The ISS received supplies in November 2024, including special items to help the astronauts celebrate the holidays in space.
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