Washington: Crew-10 is the 10th crew rotation mission carried out as part of SpaceX's human space transportation system, and also the 11th crewed flight to the ISS within NASA's Commercial Crew Program, which includes the Demo-2 test flight.
A Falcon 9 rocket, equipped with a Crew Dragon capsule, lifted off from Florida's Kennedy Space Center at 7:03 PM local time, carrying a team of four astronauts destined for the ISS. The crew includes NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. They are part of the Crew-10 mission, tasked with relieving Williams, Wilmore, and two other crew members currently aboard the station.
NASA's veteran astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have been stuck aboard the ISS in June last year. What was supposed to be an eight-day ISS mission, stretched into months due to a Boeing Starliner spacecraft malfunction. The astronauts were to return home in February next year, but even that was delayed.
According to NASA, the two stranded astronauts are scheduled to return to Earth a few days after the Crew-10 launch.
What began as a technical failure has also spiraled into a political flashpoint, as US President Donald Trump and his close advisor, Elon Musk -- who leads SpaceX -- have repeatedly suggested that former president Joe Biden "abandoned" the pair intentionally and rejected a plan to bring them back sooner. That accusation caused uproar in the space community, especially since Mr Musk did not provide any specifics.
The Crew-10 launch not only ensures the safe transition of responsibilities on the ISS but also marks a significant step in the broader strategy for space exploration. The rotation of crew members underscores the critical need for sustained human operations in space, which is essential for future missions beyond low Earth orbit. SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket has become a cornerstone of these efforts, demonstrating the capabilities required for ongoing and future explorations.