When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.
SpaceX has initiated a mission to give the International Space Station sufficient crew members, following how it successfully launched four people into space on Friday. This SpaceX Crew-10 mission to ISS will allow astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to return to Earth after their nine-month stay.
This mission is called Crew-10, which will see SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft dock with the International Space Station (ISS) late Saturday. The new astronauts will overlap with the existing crew for a few days before Williams and Wilmore (along with two others) return to our planet. That could happen as soon as March 19, weather permitting.
This SpaceX Crew-10 mission to ISS has become routine. Still, this mission has been hotly anticipated because of how Williams and Wilmore got to the station in the first place—and because SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has blamed their prolonged stay on former President Joe Biden.
The duo was part of the first crewed launch of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft last June. The test mission was supposed to be a crucial milestone in Boeing’s quest to compete with SpaceX for these types of crewed launches to the ISS.
Starliner was supposed to dock with the ISS for 10 days before returning Williams and Wilmore to Earth. However, the spacecraft experienced leaks and thruster problems, which delayed the Starliner from docking with the ISS.
Starliner eventually coupled with the station, and the astronauts were able to board. However, Boeing and NASA spent weeks testing and analyzing before bringing Starliner back to Earth empty in August.
NASA and SpaceX agreed to bring the astronauts home from space exploration on the next crewed mission to the ISS, Crew-9. They bumped two astronauts off that flight to accommodate the return of Williams and Wilmore. According to NASA, a return flight was slated for February 2025; an earlier flight would have left the ISS understaffed.
While Williams and Wilmore were aboard the ISS, Musk helped Donald Trump get elected for the second time and launched his Department of Government Efficiency. Musk started saying—both on X and in interviews—that he offered to bring the astronauts back earlier but that Biden refused for political reasons.
Musk has not provided any evidence to support this claim. NASA’s former administrator and deputy administrator under Biden said that Musk had not offered to go to the space agency’s headquarters.
