The spacecraft that will carry the next troop of astronauts to the International Space Station has reached the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft is scheduled to launch no earlier than March 12, and will carry Crew-10 astronauts on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The module's arrival at the Florida launch pad marks progress for SpaceX, which has been experiencing delays in launch preparations.
NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nicole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov will be on board and are expected to spend at least six months in space. They will replace Crew 9, which includes astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who arrived at the station last June for a 10-day stay but were forced to remain aboard the ISS when the Boeing Starliner sent to retrieve them was deemed unsafe for their return to Earth.
Crew-10 will conduct research, technology demonstrations, and maintenance aboard the microgravity lab, according to NASA. Crew Dragon Endurance is expected to remain docked for about a week before returning the Crew-9 astronauts home.
Crew-10 is currently scheduled to launch at 7:48 p.m. ET on March 12. It will follow the orbiting ISS for about 14 hours until it reaches the station and prepares for docking. Endurance is tentatively scheduled to dock with the space station at about 10 a.m. on March 13.
Sourse: www.upi.com
