SpaceX has successfully launched a team of astronauts to replace NASA’s Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore on the International Space Station (ISS), enabling the duo to finally return home. Their planned short mission turned into an extended nine-month stay, drawing political attention.
The Crew-10 mission, a routine rotation managed by NASA and SpaceX, lifted off at 7:03 p.m. ET on Friday from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. A SpaceX Dragon capsule, mounted atop a Falcon 9 rocket, transported the 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 new crew is scheduled to dock with the ISS around 11:30 p.m. ET on Saturday. Once aboard, they will spend a few days transitioning responsibilities with Williams, Wilmore, and their Crew-9 colleagues, NASA’s Nick Hague and Roscosmos’ Aleksandr Gorbunov.
Since September, the Crew-9 Dragon capsule has remained docked at the ISS. If all goes as planned, Williams, Wilmore, Hague, and Gorbunov will board the spacecraft and begin their journey back to Earth on March 19.
NASA initially planned for Crew-9 to return as soon as Sunday. However, their departure depends on Crew-10’s safe arrival. A scheduled Wednesday launch attempt was postponed due to SpaceX’s ground system issues, further delaying Crew-9’s return.
NASA had previously estimated a late March departure for Crew-9, but in an effort to expedite Williams and Wilmore’s return, SpaceX switched the Dragon capsule originally designated for Crew-10. While technical delays are common in spaceflight, this postponement has rekindled discussions about Williams and Wilmore being “stuck” or “stranded” in space—claims they strongly refute.
“That’s been the narrative from day one: stranded, abandoned, stuck—and I get it, we both get it,” Wilmore told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in February. “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 Crew-10 takes over duties on the ISS, Crew-9 can undock and return to Earth, marking the final stage of Williams and Wilmore’s unexpectedly prolonged mission.
The situation has drawn political scrutiny, with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump suggesting that the Biden administration abandoned the astronauts. However, Williams and Wilmore were aware since last summer that they would return with Crew-9 as part of standard staffing rotations.
During Friday’s launch webcast, NASA’s acting administrator, Janet Petro, mentioned speaking with Williams, Wilmore, and their crew last week.
She noted they likely have “mixed emotions.”
“Every time you get to go to space—which is what all astronauts want to do—you never know it might be your last time, because you might not be selected for another mission,” Petro explained. “So I bet they have mixed emotions leaving their colleagues up there at the space station. I’m sure they’re anxious to get home and put their feet on Earth and spend time with their family—but I think that they have enjoyed their time in space.”
Starliner’s Issues Led to Extended Stay
Williams and Wilmore’s extended mission stems from technical problems with Boeing’s Starliner capsule, which they piloted to the ISS in June during its inaugural crewed test flight. En route, they encountered propulsion malfunctions and helium leaks. These issues prompted NASA to extend their stay while teams assessed the spacecraft’s viability.
By last summer, NASA determined that returning Williams and Wilmore aboard Starliner was too risky. In August, the agency incorporated them into the ISS’s official crew rotation, ensuring their return with Crew-9.
Rather than launching a separate retrieval mission outside regular schedules—an operation that could have cost millions—NASA opted to integrate the astronauts into the standard rotation.
Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, addressed this decision in August, stating, “It just didn’t make sense to go ahead and accelerate a (SpaceX) flight to return Butch and Suni earlier.” He also clarified, “NASA never considered that option”—referring to a dedicated SpaceX mission to bring them home separately.
Despite this, Musk claimed on X that SpaceX had offered to return the astronauts months earlier, but political reasons prevented it.
A former senior NASA official told CNN that no such offer was communicated to NASA leadership. Even if it had been, the agency was unlikely to approve it due to the high costs.
“If Musk had made the offer to someone outside NASA leadership,” the official noted, “I’m sure they would have responded and said, ‘Well, that would cost us several $100 million extra that we don’t have for a new Dragon capsule and Falcon 9.’”
Musk later said he bypassed NASA and presented the offer directly to the Biden White House, which allegedly “refused to allow it.”
It remains unclear why the White House would be involved in such a decision, as crew assignments and ISS operations are typically managed by NASA, not the executive branch. A former White House staffer declined to comment on the matter.
When asked about Musk’s claims, Sarah Walker, SpaceX’s director of Dragon mission management, stated she was not involved in those discussions.
“I’m grateful for the leaders in our nation in the spheres of politics and policy. My sphere is engineering,” Walker said. “What I do know from almost 15 years of working with this exact team, with commercial crew and ISS, is that NASA is always looking at multiple options—every option available for any operation that they may go do—and then many contingency options for when the unexpected inevitably happens.”
Astronauts Respond to Political Debate
Williams and Wilmore have consistently expressed that they are enjoying their time in space.
“This is my happy place,” Williams said in September. “I love being up here in space. It’s just fun. You know, every day you do something that’s work, quote, unquote, you can do it upside down. You can do it sideways, so it adds a little different perspective.”
They have also dismissed claims that they were abandoned.
While acknowledging the mission’s challenges, they have emphasized that they were well-prepared for an extended stay.
“We have plenty of clothes. We are well-fed,” Wilmore assured 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 because we left our families a little while ago, but we have a lot to do while we’re up here.”
Wilmore, however, fueled speculation about Musk’s claims in a March 4 news conference from the ISS.
“I can only say that Mr. Musk, what he says is absolutely factual,” Wilmore stated.
However, he clarified, “We have no information on (a deal SpaceX may have offered), though, whatsoever. What was offered, what was not offered, who was offered to, how that process went—that’s information that we simply don’t have.”
Crew-9’s Role in Bringing Williams and Wilmore Home
The SpaceX Dragon capsule designated for Williams and Wilmore’s return launched in September, carrying Hague and Gorbunov along with two empty seats for them.
Since then, the Crew-9 team has carried out routine ISS activities, including spacewalks, experiments, and maintenance. Williams even assumed command of the station.
Their return has always been dependent on Crew-10’s successful launch, as NASA insists on a transition period between crews to maintain station operations.
Returning Crew-9 before Crew-10’s arrival would have left only one U.S. astronaut, Don Pettit, aboard the ISS. Pettit traveled to the station in September on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Given that NASA operates the ISS in collaboration with Roscosmos, the European Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency, maintaining a steady U.S. presence is a priority.
Despite a looming government shutdown, NASA spokesperson Steve Siceloff confirmed that the Crew-10 mission remains unaffected, as it is classified as “mission critical.”
“You may see some changes to the broadcast channel if a shutdown does happen,” Siceloff explained regarding NASA TV. “It wouldn’t be a situation where there’s no signal, but you would just probably see less of it.”