SpaceX successfully launched the Crew Dragon 10 spacecraft to the International Space Station on Friday night that will bring back two NASA astronauts who have been stuck in orbit for nine months. The Crew-10 mission took off shortly after 7 p.m. aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The spacecraft is set to reach the ISS by late Saturday night, where it will replace astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore. The two astronauts could make their return to Earth as soon as Wednesday, with a planned splashdown in Florida. Williams and Wilmore have been stranded in orbit since June 5 but will finally be back.
End of the Ordeal
Williams and Wilmore will return to Earth aboard one of the docked SpaceX capsules, accompanied by American astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, who traveled to space in September.
Their journey home will bring an end to a nine-month ordeal that began when their original eight-day mission on the ISS was extended indefinitely due to a Boeing malfunction, which severely damaged the company's reputation last year.
However, SpaceX founder Elon Musk and others have suggested that their extended stay on the ISS was politically motivated.
Musk claimed he had proposed bringing the astronauts back eight months ago, but the Biden administration rejected the idea, fearing it would benefit Donald Trump in his election battle against former Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Crew-10 mission successfully launched after a previous attempt was called off on Wednesday due to mechanical problems just moments before liftoff.
NASA expedited the return mission by two weeks following President Trump's directive to Musk to "go get" Williams and Wilmore. Before Trump's intervention, their return had not been scheduled before March 26.
The Crew-10 team consists of NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, along with Japan's Takuya Onishi and Russia's Kirill Peskov.
"Spaceflight is tough, but humans are tougher," McClain said minutes into the flight.
A Politically-Motivated Delay
The newly arrived crew will remain on the space station for the next six months, which is the standard duration for such missions. Williams and Wilmore, along with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, will return to Earth aboard SpaceX's Crew-9 Dragon capsule, which is already docked at the ISS.
Musk, who supported Trump during the 2024 campaign, contributed $288 million to his reelection bid and attended multiple MAGA rallies.
In a recent press briefing, Ken Bowersox, associate administrator of NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate, acknowledged that discussions may have taken place within the Biden White House about delaying the astronauts' return for political reasons, as it would have meant Trump's most prominent donor was responsible for their rescue.
However, he said that he was not involved in those conversations. "It's been a roller coaster for them, probably a little bit more so than for us," Williams said of her family.
"We're here, we have a mission - we're just doing what we do every day, and every day is interesting because we're up in space and it's a lot of fun."
Officials from the Biden administration have denied claims that the astronauts were kept in space for political reasons.
Wilmore and Williams originally traveled to the ISS as the first test crew for Boeing's Starliner, which encountered propulsion system failures while in orbit.
