A long-awaited rocket with a replacement crew for two stranded NASA astronauts has finally launched to the International Space Station (ISS).
US astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been stuck on the ISS for nine months, having had their journey home repeatedly pushed back.
The Crew-10 mission was initially scheduled to launch the replacement crew of four astronauts from Florida on Wednesday, but a last-minute issue with the rocket’s ground systems forced a delay.
NASA and SpaceX are sending a long-awaited crew to the International Space Station. Pic:AP
NASA said on Thursday that SpaceX, headed and founded by tech billionaire Elon Musk, had resolved the issue – flushing a suspected pocket of air out of a hydraulic clamp arm – and that the weather was 95% favourable for a Friday launch.
A view of the Earth from the second-stage rocket (left) and booster (right). Pic: NASA
Successful touchdown – first stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket returned to Earth. Pic: NASA
The crew is now expected to arrive at the ISS on Saturday night. They are NASA’s Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, who are both military pilots, along with Japan’s Takuya Onishi and Russia’s Kirill Peskov, both former airline pilots.
They will spend the next six months at the space station, releasing Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams who have been on the ISS since June 2024.
The pair originally planned to go to space for just eight days but got stuck on the station after their Boeing Starliner spacecraft started experiencing problems.
Crew members (from left) Kirill Peskov, Nichole Ayers, Anne McClain and Takuya Onishi before boarding the rocket. Pic: NASA
Footage on board shortly after the launch showed the four astronauts. Pic: NASA
The mission has become entangled in politics as Donald Trump and his adviser Elon Musk claimed – without evidence – that former President Joe Biden left the astronauts on the station for political reasons.
NASA said the two astronauts have had to remain on the ISS to maintain its minimum staffing level.
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NASA brought forward the Crew-10 mission from 26 March, swapping a delayed SpaceX capsule for one that would be ready sooner.
Mr Trump and Mr Musk’s demand for an earlier return was an unusual intervention and put additional pressure on NASA’s preparation and safety process.
NASA’s commercial crew programme manager, Steve Stich, said SpaceX’s “rapid pace of operations” had required changes to some of the ways it verifies flight safety.
The agency had to address some “late-breaking” issues, NASA space operations chief Ken Bowersox told reporters, including investigating a fuel leak on a recent SpaceX Falcon 9 launch and deterioration of a coating on some of the Dragon crew capsule’s thrusters.
Content Source: news.sky.com