Crew 10 Delayed

This week, NASA announced that the Crew-10 Mission to the International Space Station was being delayed from February to now no earlier than late March of 2025. While that might not seem too big a delay to some, it might be for two other astronauts that had possibly other hopes in mind. The delay stems from work being done on a new Crew Dragon spacecraft that is to be used for the Crew-10 flight.

In a statement from NASA: “Fabrication, assembly, testing, and final integration of a new spacecraft is a painstaking endeavor that requires great attention to detail,” said Steve Stich, manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. “We appreciate the hard work by the SpaceX team to expand the Dragon fleet in support of our missions and the flexibility of the station program and expedition crews as we work together to complete the new capsule’s readiness for flight.”

Image Credit:  Michael Howard of Crew 9 Launch

While Crew-9 was launched minus two astronauts back on September 9, 2024, the Dragon “Freedom” was to bring back Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams back to Earth after what was supposed to be a week to ten day mission at the International Space Station flying aboard the Boeing Starliner which was launched back on June 5, 2024 and as we know, the Starliner return to Earth was delayed and delayed and finally left the International Space Station empty of its crew uncertain as to the safety of the astronauts for reentry.

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 members (pictured from left to right) NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers, Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, NASA astronaut Anne McClain, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi Image Credit NASA

Once Crew-10 arrives, there will be a “hand-off” period between the arrival of Crew-10 and the departure of Crew-9 that will have been on station six months. Starliner astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore became part of Crew-9 when the two-person crew arrived at the station.  Story By:  Michael Howard Images By:  Michael Howard and NASA