SpaceX launches mission for the return of Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams from space

New Delhi. SpaceX launched its Crew-10 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday morning. This mission is a big step towards the return of NASA astronaut Sunita Williams to Earth. The four astronauts of Crew-10 will assist the Crew-9 astronauts, including stranded Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore.

This launch was scheduled to be launched earlier in the week, but the mission was delayed due to technical problems and then strong winds in the launch area.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Crew Dragon capsule took off at around 4:33 pm IST on Saturday, March 15. This mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and will bring four new astronauts to the ISS. These include the names of Anne McClain and Nicole Ayers of NASA, Takuya Onishi of JAXA and Kirill Peskov of Roscosmos.

The Crew-9 team is expected to leave the ISS before Wednesday, March 19, provided the weather remains favorable off the coast of Florida. Let us tell you that Sunita Williams, along with Butch Wilmore, has been staying in the ISS for a long time due to problems in the Boeing Starliner spacecraft flown in June 2024.

Trump had given responsibility to Musk
After assuming office, US President Donald Trump had given the responsibility of bringing both the astronauts back to Earth to Elon Musk. He had asked Musk to bring both the astronauts back to Earth as soon as possible.

Sunita Williams went to the International Space Station on June 5 last year. She was to return a week later, but she got stuck there due to a glitch in the Boeing Starliner. Both the astronauts went to space on the Joint Crew Flight Test Mission of Boeing and NASA.