SpaceX’s Crew-10 mission successfully docked at the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday, bringing hope for the return of two NASA astronauts—Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore—who have been stuck in orbit for months. The space capsule, launched on Friday from Texas, arrived at the ISS at 12:05 a.m. EST (9:35 am IST). SpaceX Dragon capsule took about 28.5 hours to travel from Earth to the ISS.
The spacecraft carried four astronauts—Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers from NASA, Takuya Onishi from Japan’s JAXA, and Kirill Peskov from Russia’s Roscosmos. They will spend the next few days familiarizing themselves with the ISS alongside NASA astronauts Williams and Wilmore. The crew is expected to enter the ISS after 1.05 a.m. EST (10.35 a.m. IST), where astronaut Wilmore will greet them. Williams and Wilmore have been stranded on the ISS since June due to technical issues with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft.
Wilmore and Williams expected to be gone just a week when they launched on Boeing’s first astronaut flight. They hit the nine-month mark earlier this month. The Boeing Starliner capsule encountered so many problems that NASA insisted it come back empty, leaving its test pilots behind to wait for a SpaceX lift.
Their ride arrived in late September with a downsized crew of two and two empty seats reserved for the leg back. But more delays resulted when their replacements’ brand new capsule needed extensive battery repairs. An older capsule took its place, pushing up their return by a couple weeks to mid-March.
Their return was scheduled after the eight-day mission, but persistent problems delayed their journey home. Plans to send them back after Crew-9’s arrival in August were also scrapped due to the lack of an emergency escape pod. Now, with Crew-10 successfully docked, Williams and Wilmore will finally get a chance to return to Earth along with Crew-9.
According to SpaceX founder Elon Musk, their return flight is expected to begin in the coming days. Crew-10’s mission was initially planned for Wednesday evening but was postponed due to an issue with a ground support clamp arm on the rocket. Despite the delay, the mission is now back on track, ensuring that the long-awaited return of the stranded astronauts is just around the corner.
Earlier, the astronaut duo was scheduled to return to Earth by the end of March, but it was preponed after US President Donald Trump urged SpaceX Musk to bring them back early.
