Stranded NASA astronauts finally set for earth return as SpaceX rocket on its way to ISS

Two are finally set to return to Earth as a rocket with a replacement crew is travelling to the International Space Station (ISS). Originally set to go for just eight days in June 2024, astronauts and US Navy pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been stranded for nine months after their Boeing Starliner spacecraft started experiencing problems.

The long-awaited SpaceX Crew-10 mission is expected to arrive early Sunday morning at 03:00am GMT (Saturday 11:30pm ET), after lifting off on Friday evening at 23:03pm GMT (7:03 pm ET) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. Wilmore and Williams are scheduled to leave the station on Wednesday morning, along with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, who flew to the ISS in September on a Crew Dragon craft.

The Falcon 9 rocket was originally scheduled to fly from Florida on Wednesday, but a last-minute issue with the ground system pushed it back. On Thursday, NASA confirmed SpaceX had flushed the suspected pocket of air out of a hydraulic clamp arm.

Part of a routine replacement mission, it is carrying four crew who will stay at the ISS for six months, NASA’s Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, who are both military pilots, along with Japan’s Takuya Onishi and ‘s Kirill Peskov, both former airline pilots.

and had both claimed without providing evidence that former President had left the astronauts stranded for political reasons. NASA stated that it was due to maintaining minimum staffing levels.

Wilmore told reporters from space earlier this month he did not believe it had been impacted by politics, adding: “We came prepared to stay long, even though we planned to stay short. That’s what your nation’s human spaceflight program’s all about, planning for unknown, unexpected contingencies. And we did that.”

The involvement of the US president and applied pressure to the operation, and NASA’s commercial crew programme manager, Steve Stich, said SpaceX’s “rapid pace of operations” had required changes to some of the ways it verifies flight safety.

swapping a delayed SpaceX capsule for another that could be ready sooner. However, it is not being labelled a rescue mission, and rather a routine replacement.

McClain, the Crew-10 mission commander, said from the Crew Dragon capsule as they entered orbit: “It is far easier to be enemies than it is to be friends, it’s easier to break partnerships and relationships than it is to build them.

“Spaceflight is hard, and success depends on leaders of character who choose a harder right over the easier wrong, and who build programs, partnerships and relationships. We explore for the benefit of all.”