NASA’s replacement crew launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday night, clearing the way for astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to return after nine months in orbit.
Wilmore and Williams must wait for SpaceX‘s relief team to arrive before they can depart. The new crew is set to reach the station late Saturday night.
“The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft has separated from the Falcon 9’s second stage and is flying on its own. The spacecraft is traveling at approximately 17,500 miles per hour (28,200 kilometers per hour),” NASA posted in its live blog about the launch at 7:17 p.m. ET.
Why It Matters
Their extended mission has drawn political attention, as President Donald Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk vowed earlier this year to expedite their return and blamed the previous administration for delays.
Friday’s successful launch comes after SpaceX’s recent Starship test flights have encountered challenges. In its latest attempt, the rocket launched successfully from Texas but lost contact after approximately 10 minutes, leading to its disintegration over Florida.
This incident resulted in flaming debris falling over regions including Cape Canaveral, prompting the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to initiate an investigation. This marked the second consecutive failure for Starship, following a similar incident in January.
What to Know
NASA’s goal is to ensure crew overlap so that astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams can brief their replacements before departing the International Space Station (ISS). If all goes as planned, they will undock next week and splash down off the Florida coast, weather permitting.
The pair will return with astronauts who arrived last September on a SpaceX rescue mission, which included two empty seats reserved for Wilmore and Williams.
Rocketing toward orbit from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, the newest crew includes NASA’s Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, both military pilots, alongside Japan’s Takuya Onishi and Russia’s Kirill Peskov, both former airline pilots.
The SpaceX Crew-10 mission is being carried out using a Crew Dragon spacecraft, which is SpaceX’s reusable spacecraft designed for human spaceflight. The specific Crew Dragon capsule used for this mission is named Endeavour, one of SpaceX’s veteran spacecraft that has flown multiple missions to the ISS.
The Crew Dragon spacecraft is fully autonomous, though astronauts onboard can manually take control if necessary. It is launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX’s workhorse launch vehicle, which is known for its reusability—helping reduce costs and increase launch frequency.
Wilmore and Williams, test pilots for Boeing’s Starliner capsule, originally expected a one-week mission when they launched from Cape Canaveral on June 5. However, helium leaks and thruster failures disrupted their trip, triggering months of investigation by NASA and Boeing.
Liftoff of Crew-10! pic.twitter.com/OOLMFQgA52
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 14, 2025
Deeming Starliner unsafe for return, NASA ordered it to fly back empty last September and moved Wilmore and Williams to a SpaceX flight originally scheduled for February. That return was further delayed due to battery repairs on SpaceX’s brand-new capsule, prompting the switch to a used capsule, accelerating their homecoming to mid-March.
Despite the challenges, Wilmore and Williams have supported NASA’s decisions and remained active contributors to ISS operations—repairing a toilet, watering plants, conducting experiments, and even performing a spacewalk together. Williams, now holding nine spacewalks, set a new record for women for the most career spacewalking hours.
A last-minute hydraulics issue delayed the first launch attempt on Wednesday when concerns arose over one of two clamp arms on the Falcon rocket’s support structure. SpaceX later flushed the system to remove trapped air, resolving the problem.
For Wilmore and Williams, the hardest part of the mission has been its impact on their families—Wilmore’s wife and two daughters, and Williams’ husband and mother. Now, Wilmore, a church elder, looks forward to resuming in-person ministering, while Williams is eager to walk her two Labrador retrievers.
What People Are Saying
Williams said earlier this week: “We appreciate all the love and support from everybody. This mission has brought attention—there are good and bad aspects—but the best part is that more people are interested in what we’re doing in space exploration.”
McClain said minutes into the flight: “Spaceflight is tough, but humans are tougher.”
What Happens Next
The new crew will spend six months at the space station, considered the standard mission duration, after relieving Wilmore and Williams.
Reporting by the Associated Press contributed to this story.
Update: 3/14/25, 7:27 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
Update: 3/14/25, 7:40 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
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