Elon Musk-led SpaceX will launch the much-awaited Crew-10 mission to the International Space Station on Wednesday. The Dragon spacecraft will then undock from the flying laboratory with four astronauts including Sunita Williams and Butch Willmore.
The two Nasa astronauts have been stuck in space due to an extended mission that has now lasted over eight months. They arrived at the Space Station aboard Boeing's Starliner for an eight-day mission in 2024.
The Crew-10 mission will launch from Nasa's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday 5:18am IST.
The Dragon spacecraft supporting this mission previously flew Nasa’s Crew-3, Crew-5, and Crew-7 missions to and from the space station.
The Dragon will launch with four astronauts, who will replace the current team aboard the ISS. The four astronauts launching as part of Crew-10 include Anne McClain, Ayers Nichole Ayers, Takuya Onishi, and Kirill Peskov.
Following separation from Flacon-9, the Dragon spacecraft will execute a series of burns that position the vehicle progressively closer to the station before it performs final docking manoeuvres, followed by pressurization of the vestibule, hatch opening, and crew ingress.
Sunita Williams's return got political after President Donald Trump and Elon Musk accused the Biden administration of intentionally delaying their homecoming.
US President Donald Trump addressed the situation of NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, referring to Williams as the "woman with wild hair".
Trump stated that he “authorised Elon a week ago” to retrieve them. Nasa reports that the astronauts are expected to return to Earth around March 19 or 20 aboard a SpaceX vehicle.
Trump joked about the astronauts, “I hope they like each other, maybe they’ll love each other, I don’t know. But they’ve been left up there. Think of it”. He also commented on Sunita Williams’ hair after a video of her hair floating in space went viral, describing her as the ‘woman with the wild hair’ and remarking, “Good solid head of hair she’s got there’s no games with her hair,”.
Source: India Today