SpaceX has launched a crew of astronauts who will take over operations on the International Space Station from NASA’s Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, allowing the duo to return home after what was initially a short mission turned into a nine-month, politically charged journey.
The Crew-10 mission, part of a routine crew rotation managed jointly by NASA and SpaceX, launched at 7:03 p.m. ET on Friday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
A SpaceX Dragon capsule, atop one of the company’s Falcon 9 rockets, carried four Crew-10 astronauts—NASA’s Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov—into orbit.
The crew is expected to dock with the space station around 11:30 p.m. ET Saturday, where they will spend several days undergoing a “handover” period with Williams, Wilmore, and their fellow Crew-9 astronauts, NASA’s Nick Hague and Roscosmos’ Aleksandr Gorbunov.
The Crew-9 Dragon capsule has been docked at the space station since September. If everything proceeds as planned, Williams, Wilmore, Hague, and Gorbunov will board the Crew-9 spacecraft and return to Earth on March 19.
Although NASA had originally planned for Williams, Wilmore, and the Crew-9 astronauts to return by Sunday, their departure depended on the safe arrival of the replacement crew. SpaceX had delayed the Crew-10 mission launch on Wednesday due to issues with its launchpad ground systems.
The new launch date aligns more closely with the late March return timeline that NASA had set in December before SpaceX decided to swap the Dragon capsule for Crew-10 in an effort to expedite Williams and Wilmore’s return.
Launch attempts are often delayed due to technical issues, but the brief hold-up in launching Crew-10 has sparked renewed discussions about Williams and Wilmore being “stuck” or “stranded” in space—terms both astronauts have dismissed.
“That’s been the narrative from day one: stranded, abandoned, stuck — and I understand it, we both understand it,” Wilmore told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in February. “But help us change the narrative. Let’s change it to: prepared and committed, despite what you’ve been hearing. That’s what we prefer.”
Once the handover of responsibilities to the Crew-10 astronauts is complete, the Crew-9 astronauts will board their capsule and undock, marking the beginning of the final phase of Williams and Wilmore’s eventful journey.
While their time in space has become increasingly politicized, with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump claiming the Biden administration abandoned the astronauts, Williams and Wilmore have known since at least last summer that they would return home with Crew-9 as part of a routine staffing rotation.
Acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro said during Friday’s launch webcast that she had spoken with Williams, Wilmore, and their fellow crew members last week.
She noted that the four astronauts would likely experience “mixed emotions” as they prepared to leave.
“Every time you get to go to space — which is what all astronauts want to do — you never know if it might be your last time, because you might not be selected for another mission,” Petro said. “So, I bet they have mixed emotions leaving their colleagues at the space station. I’m sure they’re eager to get home, put their feet on Earth, and spend time with their families. But I think they’ve also enjoyed their time in space.”
From Starliner to Crew Dragon
Williams and Wilmore began their journey to the International Space Station in June as pilots of the inaugural crewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule. However, several issues arose during the trip, including propulsion problems and helium leaks. These challenges led NASA to extend their stay on the space station while mission teams worked to resolve the issues.
Ultimately, NASA determined last summer that it would be too risky to bring Williams and Wilmore back aboard the Boeing vehicle. In August, the space agency announced that it would integrate them into the official space station crew, making them part of the regular crew rotation and setting them up for their return with SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission.
This decision was made instead of launching a separate mission outside the usual space station schedule, which would have cost millions of dollars.
Steve Stich, the program manager for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, explained in August that it “just didn’t make sense” to accelerate a SpaceX flight to bring Williams and Wilmore back earlier. He added that NASA “never considered that option,” referring to the possibility of launching a separate SpaceX mission solely for their return rather than using a routine, prescheduled flight.
In his recent posts on X, Musk claimed that SpaceX could have brought Williams and Wilmore home months ago, but the offer was rejected for “political reasons.”
However, a former senior NASA official told CNN that SpaceX never presented such an offer to the agency’s leadership, and NASA likely would not have considered it even if they had.
If Musk had made the offer to someone outside of NASA leadership, the source pointed out, “I’m sure they would have responded by saying, ‘Well, that would cost us several hundred million dollars extra for a new Dragon capsule and Falcon 9, which we don’t have.'”
Musk later clarified that the offer wasn’t directed at NASA, but was instead taken to the Biden White House, which he claims “refused to allow it.”
It remains unclear why such a proposal would have been discussed with the White House, as it typically does not involve itself in NASA crew assignments or space station staffing decisions.
A former White House staffer did not respond to a request for comment.
When asked about the matter on Friday, Sarah Walker, SpaceX’s director of Dragon mission management, stated that she was not involved in the conversations Musk referred to.
“I’m grateful for the leaders in our nation in the political and policy spheres, but my area is engineering,” Walker said. “What I do know, from almost 15 years of working with this team on commercial crew and the ISS, is that NASA is always evaluating multiple options—every available option for any operation they may undertake—and also considering many contingency plans for when the unexpected inevitably occurs.”
Williams and Wilmore react
Williams and Wilmore have consistently expressed how much they enjoy their time in space.
“This is my happy place,” Williams said in September. “I love being up here in space. It’s just fun. Every day, you do something that’s considered work, but you can do it upside down or sideways, so it gives you a different perspective.”
The pair have also worked to counter claims that the Biden administration left them stranded.
While acknowledging that there have been challenges during the mission, Williams and Wilmore have emphasized that they were well-prepared for an extended stay and were not abandoned.
“We have plenty of clothes. We are well-fed,” Wilmore said in January.
Williams added, “It’s just a great team, and no, it doesn’t feel like we’re castaways.”
“Eventually, we want to go home,” she continued, “because we left our families a little while ago, but we still have a lot to do while we’re up here.”
However, Wilmore fueled speculation about Musk’s claims of an offer to bring the astronauts home early during a March 4 news conference from the International Space Station.
“I can only say that what Mr. Musk says is absolutely factual,” Wilmore stated.
He added, “We have no information on the deal SpaceX may have offered—what was offered, who it was offered to, or how that process went. That’s information we simply don’t have.”
How Crew-9 is Bringing Williams and Wilmore Home
The SpaceX capsule that will take Williams and Wilmore home from the space station launched in September, with Crew-9’s Hague and Gorbunov piloting a SpaceX Dragon with two empty seats for the astronauts.
Since then, the four astronauts have been engaged in standard space station activities—conducting spacewalks, carrying out science experiments, and maintaining the station. Williams even took over as commander of the space station.
The timing of Williams and Wilmore’s return has always depended on the successful launch of the Crew-10 mission. NASA has emphasized that two crews are necessary for a proper handover period, which is critical for space station operations.
Allowing Crew-9 to return before Crew-10 would have left only one U.S. astronaut on the space station—NASA’s Don Pettit, who arrived aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in September. NASA and Russia’s Roscosmos space agency jointly operate the orbiting laboratory, along with the European Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Canadian Space Agency.
NASA aims to ensure that at least four astronauts from the United States or partner space agencies are on board the station at all times.
With a potential government shutdown on the horizon, NASA spokesperson Steve Siceloff told CNN that the Crew-10 mission would not be affected, as it is considered “mission critical.”
“You might see some changes to the broadcast channel if a shutdown occurs,” he said, referring to NASA TV. “There wouldn’t be a complete loss of signal, but you’d likely see less coverage,” he added.
