SpaceX has successfully launched a rescue mission team to the International Space Station (ISS) for the return of two stranded astronauts.
It comes after the space technology company had to delay its mission over a last-minute technical issue with the rocket’s launch pad earlier this week.
The Falcon 9 rocket took off at 7:03 pm, local time, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying four astronauts who will replace astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.
Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams are veteran NASA astronauts and were the first to fly Boeing’s Starliner capsule to the ISS in June 2024.
But problems with Starliner’s propulsion system during the flight forced an extension of their planned eight-day stay as NASA deemed it too risky for them to fly home on the craft, which returned to Earth empty in September.
Otherwise a routine crew rotation flight, Friday’s Crew-10 mission is also a long-awaited key step to bring the astronaut duo back to Earth.
They are scheduled to depart the station on March 19 after the Crew-10 astronauts arrive Saturday night.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams inspecting safety hardware aboard the International Space Station. (NASA via AP))
The mission has become entangled in politics as US President Donald Trump and SpaceX’s CEO Elon Musk have said without evidence that former president Joe Biden left the astronauts on the station for political reasons.
“We came prepared to stay long, even though we planned to stay short,” Mr Wilmore said.
He added that he did not believe NASA’s decision to keep them on the ISS until Crew-10’s arrival had been affected by politics.
“That’s what your nation’s human spaceflight program’s all about,” he said.
“Planning for unknown, unexpected contingencies and we did that.”
NASA said the two astronauts have had to remain on the ISS to maintain its minimum staffing level.
Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams have been doing scientific research and conducting routine maintenance with the other astronauts.
NASA says it changed flight safety verification
Mr Trump and Mr Musk’s demand for an earlier return was an unusual intervention.
NASA brought forward the Crew-10 mission from March 26, swapping a delayed SpaceX capsule for one that would be ready sooner.
The pressure from Mr Trump and Mr Musk has hung over a NASA preparation and safety process that normally follows a well-defined course.
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich said SpaceX’s “rapid pace of operations” had required NASA to change some of the ways it verifies flight safety.
NASA space operations chief Ken Bowersox added that the agency had to address some “late-breaking” issues.
NASA brought forward the Crew-10 mission from March 26. (Reuters: Joe Skipper)
This included 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.
Mr Bowersox said it was hard for NASA to keep up with SpaceX.
“We’re not quite as agile as they are, but we’re working well together,” he said.
Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams and two others — NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov — are set to return to Earth in a capsule that has been attached to the station since September.
Crew-10 is expected to dock with the ISS late on Saturday night, followed by a traditional handover ceremony that will allow for the Crew-9 crew’s departure on March 19.
Reuters/ABC
