Crew-10 astronauts will arrive at the International Space Station (ISS) on March 15 at 11:30 p.m. ET (March 16, 9 a.m. IST) to stay for six months. They will take the place of NASA astronauts Sunita Williams, Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore, Nick Hague, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, who will leave on March 19.

The new crew includes NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. They will have a two-day transition period to get accustomed to station operations before assuming command.

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The journey of Crew-10 started with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket delivering the Crew Dragon capsule from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7:03 p.m. ET on Friday (4:33 a.m. IST on Saturday). The capsule separated from the rocket after some ten minutes of flight and set off towards the ISS.

Crew-10 crew members will temporarily raise the station’s total number of astronauts to 11. The current crew consists of NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore, and Don Pettit, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Aleksandr Gorbunov, Alexey Ovchinin, and Ivan Vagner.

Handover and Departure

Williams, Wilmore, Hague, and Gorbunov will come back to Earth no sooner than March 19 following a short handover.NASA reported that mission crews would review weather conditions before confirming the splashdown off Florida’s coast.

While a normal crew swap, Crew-10’s mission is notable because it allows the much-awaited return of Wilmore and Williams, who have been on board the ISS for nine months. They had first arrived in June through Boeing’s problematic Starliner capsule, which had technical issues, postponing their return.

As NASA hastens efforts to have them return, Wilmore, Williams, Hague, and Gorbunov will return home on a Crew Dragon capsule already aboard the ISS.

What’s Next for Crew-10?

Before Wilmore and Williams leave, they will have time to prepare and brief Crew-10 on ISS operations under way to create an easy handoff. NASA plans to maintain the overlap between Crew-9 and Crew-10 to allow it.

Crew-10 crew, the newly arrived crew with experienced military and airline pilots, will remain on the ISS for half a year. They will conduct experiments on lunar navigation, the flammability of materials, and the physiological effects of space travel while on duty. Their findings will guide designs for future spacecraft and facility enhancements.

Crew-10 will be stationed on the ISS until fall, performing important scientific research and maintenance work on the station.