Two NASA astronauts who have been on the International Space Station since June could return to Earth weeks earlier than originally planned, thanks to SpaceX agreeing to swap capsules for upcoming crewed missions.
NASA said Tuesday that Crew 10's launch is now set for March 12, two weeks ahead of schedule, to bring Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams home.
“Human spaceflight is full of unexpected challenges. Our ability to adapt is enabled by the strong partnership between NASA and SpaceX, as well as the flexibility SpaceX continues to demonstrate to safely meet the agency’s evolving needs,” Steve Stich, NASA’s human spaceflight program manager, said in a statement.
“We are benefiting significantly from SpaceX’s commercial efforts and their proactive approach to preparing another spacecraft for evaluation and use in support of Crew-10,” Stich added.
Wilmore and Williams were stuck at the ISS for more than eight months after arriving on Boeing's new Starliner spacecraft on a test flight. Although the astronauts had planned to spend only a few days on the space station, problems with Starliner's engines forced NASA to return the spacecraft to Earth unmanned.
The astronauts' return was delayed several times until NASA decided in August to send them back to Earth on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft earlier this year.
“NASA and SpaceX are working to establish target launch and return dates for future crew rotation missions to and from the space station,” NASA said in a statement Tuesday on X. “Crew-10 is now scheduled to launch on March 12, pending mission readiness and completion of flight preparations.”
The Crew-10 mission will include NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nicole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.
“Once Crew-10 arrives at the space station, Crew-9 will help the new crew become familiar with the station's current science and engineering tasks, which will contribute to a safer transition of operations aboard the orbiting complex,” NASA said Tuesday.
Wilmore and Williams will return on the same spacecraft as Crew 9 astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov.
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