NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission prepares to help bring the Starliner astronauts home
With favorable weather forecast at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission was scheduled to launch at 7:49PM ET tonight, before NASA and SpaceX said they would stand down from a launch attempt. The next launch opportunity is March 13th at 7:26PM ET.
Once its there, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will finally get a safe ride back home to Earth after being stranded aboard the ISS for nine months. Their Boeing Starliner mission that launched to the ISS on June 5th, 2024, was supposed to be just an eight-day mission, but issues like thruster failures and helium leaks made it unsafe to return to Earth using Starliner. The astronauts will now return on the Crew-9 capsule, tentatively scheduled for March 16th, 2025, along with two astronauts from the mission that launched to the ISS on September 28th, 2024
The Crew-10 mission includes NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, as well as JAXA mission specialist Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. The crew will spend several months aboard the ISS conducting experiments, research, and performing spacewalks.
Follow along here for all of the updates on the Crew-10 launch, as well as the return flight of Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.
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The Crew-10 launch approaches, and Dragon’s hatch is closed.
The latest update about the status of the Crew-10 launch scheduled for 7:48PM ET shows the view from inside the capsule as the hatch door closed.
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SpaceX is pausing Falcon 9 flights after issues following its Crew-9 launch.
The rocket’s second stage “experienced an off-nominal deorbit burn” and missed its landing target following yesterday’s flight, SpaceX posted.
The company is investigating the root cause. In the meantime, as Space notes, a California satellite launch that was scheduled for today has been postponed.
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NASA’s Crew-9 mission that will bring the Starliner astronauts home launches today.
At 9:10AM ET, the agency will kick off a livestream of the start of the Crew-9 mission meant to bring stranded NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunni Williams back to Earth next year.
Out of the loop? Check our storystream on the Boeing Starliner issues that left them stuck on ISS. Liftoff is scheduled for 1:17PM ET today.
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NASA’s Starliner astronauts don’t feel ‘let down’ by Boeing’s spacecraft
NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore spoke about their continued stay aboard the International Space Station during a press conference held yesterday. The two are now fully incorporated into the ISS crew, as the Boeing Starliner spacecraft that was meant to take them home last week was instead sent back to Earth uncrewed.
Early on, the two were asked if they felt “let down” by Boeing.
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Boeing Starliner has completed its lonely return to Earth
The Boeing Starliner spacecraft successfully completed its uncrewed flight back to Earth, NASA announced overnight. The return ended the Starliner’s most recent flight test months later than intended and leaves its original crew, NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Suni Williams, aboard the International Space Station until next year.
The Starliner touched down right on time at 12:01 AM ET at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico, according to NASA. Officials at the agency hailed its successful descent:
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Boeing Starliner is finally on its way back.
The troubled spacecraft successfully undocked from the ISS without issue just after 6PM ET, and now it is scheduled to land at 12:01AM ET on Saturday at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.
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Boeing’s Starliner started making a repeating ‘pulsing’ sound Saturday
Image: NASA
US astronaut Barry Wilmore called NASA ground crew on Saturday, asking for help with a repetitive knocking sound that was coming from the Boeing Starliner craft. The interaction was captured by a NASA Space Flight forum member, who included a recording of it in a post that was spotted by Ars Technica.
In the recording, Wilmore asks the NASA crew in Houston to configure their call to show them the noise, which he says is coming from the speaker inside Starliner. Then, a repetitive clanging sound with slight there’s-something-on-the-wing vibes can be heard. The Earthside crew member describes it as sounding “almost like a sonar ping.”
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NASA shuffles Crew-9 team that will bring Starliner crew home
Image: NASA
SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission will launch to the International Space Station with only NASA’s Nick Hague and Roscosmos’ Aleksandr Gorbunov onboard, according to an update on Friday. Crew-9 will launch “no earlier” than September 24th, with plans to bring delayed Starliner astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams back to Earth next February.
Wilmore and Williams arrived at the ISS in June and were only supposed to stay for about a week while conducting tests. However, helium leaks and valve issues on Boeing’s Starliner delayed their return, and NASA gave up on sending them back on the spacecraft altogether. The agency decided to bring Wilmore and Williams home on SpaceX’s Dragon capsule with the Crew-9 mission instead.
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NASA will bring the Starliner astronauts home next year on SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission
Image: NASA
NASA administrator Bill Nelson announced today that US astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore will return next February with the SpaceX Crew-9 mission after spending more than 80 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
According to NASA Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich, “As we got more and more data over the summer and understood the uncertainty of that data, it became very clear to us that the best course of action was to return Starliner uncrewed.” He said NASA found “there was just just too much uncertainty in the prediction of the thrusters.”
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Boeing Starliner astronauts might get a ride home from SpaceX — in 2025
Image: Boeing
During a press conference today, NASA representatives confirmed they have a contingency plan to bring astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams home from the International Space Station (ISS) early next year. If they’re unable to leave sooner aboard the Boeing Starliner spacecraft that brought them there, the backup plan would rely on SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission, which has had its launch delayed while officials figure out what to do next.
After a successful crewed launch of the Boeing Starliner on June 5th (following several delays), the two astronauts were originally supposed to spend about a week aboard the ISS before parachuting back to Earth. But the Starliner experienced thruster failures and helium leaks while docking with the ISS, plus additional delays that have left the astronauts stuck in orbit for over two months while Boeing and NASA try to determine if the vehicle is still safe to use.
