GUWAHATI: Astronaut Sunita Williams and fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore, who have been stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) for nine months, will not return to Earth before 19 March,according to NASA.
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The two astronauts originally travelled to the ISS in June 2024 on what was meant to be an eight-day mission, but their return was repeatedly delayed due to technical issues with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft.
NASA’s next crewed mission, SpaceX Crew-10, is now scheduled to launch on March 14 at 7:03 PM. EDT from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission will send four astronauts—NASA’s Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov—to replace Williams and Wilmore at the ISS.
The launch had been initially planned for an earlier date but was postponed due to high winds and precipitation along the flight path. Additionally, SpaceX engineers needed time to resolve a hydraulic system issue with a ground support clamp arm for the Falcon 9 rocket at Launch Complex 39A.
NASA now reports highly favourable launch conditions, with a greater-than-95% chance of acceptable weather on March 14. However, forecasts indicate a 50-60% chance of unfavourable conditions if the launch is delayed to March 15-16.
Once Crew-10 arrives and docks at the ISS on March 15, they will spend a few days acclimatising before taking over operations from Crew-9, which currently consists of Nick Hague, Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore, and Aleksandr Gorbunov.
