KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. – The crew of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission was at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on Monday for a test that the space agency says is among the last needed ahead of launch, now less than three weeks away.
NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov participated in a crew equipment test at SpaceX’s new Dragon processing facility, a day-long exercise which gave them a chance to wear their spacesuits and enter the Dragon spacecraft to ensure a good seat fit and check for leaks as they made themselves familiar with the interior, according to NASA’s blog.
Pending mission readiness and completion of NASA’s certification of flight readiness process, Crew-10 is set to launch no earlier than 7:48 p.m. on March 12 from Launch Complex 39A at KSC, the blog states.
The arrival of Crew-10 will herald the departure of NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who are expected to return to Earth from the International Space Station with Crew-9 astronauts NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alex Gorbunov. Crew-9 had originally been a crew of four space travelers but was cut to two so that there would be room to retrieve Wilmore and Williams, who have been at the space station since June.
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Wilmore, Williams, Hague and Gorbunov can only return to Earth after Crew-10 arrives, a plan that’s been changed little since December when NASA and SpaceX teams determined more time was needed to complete processing on a new Dragon spacecraft for the mission, thus further delaying the stuck astronauts’ second schlep. The latest signifigant update came Feb. 11 when NASA announced SpaceX would opt to use an older capsule instead of the newer one, shaving at least a couple weeks off Wilmore and Williams’ stay.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has for recent months maintained that Wilmore and Williams were “left” at the space station by the Biden administration for political reasons, often following the claims with contrasting promises that he and President Donald Trump were working to get them back sooner.
In a social media spat with European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen of Denmark — who piloted Crew-7, a six-week space station mission using SpaceX hardware — Musk replied to Mogensen’s criticism of his statements during a Fox News interview by claiming SpaceX could have brought back the stranded astronauts several months ago and calling the Dane aerospace engineer “fully retarded.”
Elon, I have long admired you and what you have accomplished, especially at SpaceX and Tesla.
— Andreas Mogensen (@Astro_Andreas) February 20, 2025
You know as well as I do, that Butch and Suni are returning with Crew-9, as has been the plan since last September. Even now, you are not sending up a rescue ship to bring them home.…
Musk within several hours made another post calling “to begin preparations for deorbiting the (space station).”
NASA had already tasked SpaceX with doing just that however, announcing an $843 million contract in June for Musk’s company to develop a deorbit spacecraft that can attach to and slow down the space station. Following development of the spacecraft, NASA would then take ownership of it and operate it throughout the mission, according to the agency.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.