NASA-SpaceX launches mission to bring Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore safely home

By Anjali Sharma

WASHINGTON – NASA and SpaceX on Saturday launched a crewed mission to the International Space Station to bring home NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore who have been stranded in space since last June.

According to NASA the Dragon spacecraft took off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida at 7:03 p.m. ET on Friday (4.33 am on Saturday IST).

US space agency shared in a post on social media platform X stated “Have a great time in space, y’all! #Crew10 lifted off from NASA Kennedy at 7:03pm ET (2303 UTC) on Friday, March 14”.

“Falcon 9 launches Crew-10, Dragon’s 14th human spaceflight mission to the Space Station,” added SpaceX.

The Crew-10 mission carries NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov to ISS, NASA said.

The spacecraft, en route to ISS, will take about 28.5 hours to autonomously dock to the space station.

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission after the arrival of Crew-10 to the orbital laboratory,consisting of NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, will return to Earth.

The launch was originally planned for March 13 but was scrubbed less than an hour before liftoff due to a hydraulic system issue with a ground support clamp arm on the rocket.

Williams and Wilmore have been stuck in space since last June due to technical problems of Boeing’s Starliner which took them to ISS.

The astronaut duo were scheduled to return to Earth by March-end after US President Donald Trump urged SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to bring them back early.