SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is set for blast off Wednesday night to carry four astronauts of the Crew Dragon 10 to the International Space Station (ISS).
The Crew-10 is scheduled for lift off at 7:48 p.m. EST from the Kennedy Space Center. in Florida, with the launch livestreamed on X.
This flight will carry a crew of four to the space station, they are: NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.
McClain, a West Point graduate and Iraq war veteran, has been made the commander of the Crew-10 mission, which will mark her second trip to space after previously serving as a flight engineer at the ISS from 2018 to 2019.
The decorated veteran’s first trip to the ISS was marred after her estranged wife falsely accused her of hacking into her bank account from space following a nasty custody battle, with McClain’s former partner later charged with making false statements to federal authorities.
Ayers, a US Air Force major who flew more than 200 combat hours over Iraq and Syria, will serve as the pilot, with the Crew-10 mission set to be her first trip to space.
After blast off, the astronauts are expected to arrive at the ISS by Thursday to relieve members of the Crew-9 mission, as well as the two American astronauts who have been stranded at the station for eight months.
Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been stuck at the ISS after their Boeing Starliner capsule suffered several leaks during their trip in June, are set to return on one of the docked SpaceX capsules along with fellow NASA astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
The trip would end the eight-month long saga the astronauts have endured after their original 10 days in space was extended indefinitely due to the Boeing malfunction, which cratered the company’s reputation last year.
The exact date of their return is not immediately clear, but could be as soon as March 16, NASA has said.
Should anything happen to call off Wednesday’s Crew-10 launch, NASA has set a backup launch window for 7:26 p.m. on Thursday.
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