Astronauts ‘stranded’ closer to arriving home after the next start -up of ISSA

The routine rotation of the crew at the International Space Station has taken on an unusual significance: it affects the path for a pair of astronauts stranded for more than nine months to finally return home.

The NASA-SPACEX CREW-10 mission is scheduled to start from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 19:48 (2348 GMT). The Spacex Falcon 9 rocket carries a folding crew capsule on a team team on a scientific expedition to orbital laboratory.

All eyes will be on the astronaut Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been stuck on ISS from June after their spacecraft Boeing Starling developed the issues of the drive and considered themselves inappropriate for their return.

The couple, initially scheduled for an eight-day mission, was awarded to Crew-9 after his astronauts arrived in September on the Spacex Dragon ship. The spacecraft wore only two crew members instead of the usual four to make room for Wilmore and Williams. The crew-9 will remain in the orbit until Crew-10 arrives.

“We came ready to stay long, though we plan to stay short,” Wilmore said at a recent press conference. “This is about the Human Space Flight program in your country, planning unknown, unexpected unforeseen situations.”

The Crew-10 is expected to agree early Thursday, followed by a short hand over before Crew-9 started on March 16th because of the ocean demolition from the Florida coast, allowing the weather. Together with Wilmore and Williams, NASA Astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov will also be on board a capsule of the Dragon returning.

Wilmore and Williams’s long lasting stay has recently become a political point, as President Donald Trump and his close advisor Elon Musk accused former President Joe Biden of leaving the couple.

Spacex Boss Musk, without a specificity, suggested that he offered Biden a “rescue” mission outside the routine crew rotation.

However, with Trump, which is now on duty for almost two months, astronauts can still return as originally planned.

The question recently caused a burdensome internet exchange between Mošus and Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen, whom Musk called “completely retarded.” Retired astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly and Chris Hadfield defended Mogensen.

However, an astronaut who supported Musk was Wilmore, who offered conflicting statements at last week’s press conference.

“I can only say that Mr. Musk, what he says is absolutely factual,” he said, seemingly supporting the version of the Spacex founder event, before adding “Politics is not playing in this at all.”

“We have the greatest respect for Mr. Male, and obvious respect and admiration for our President of the United States, Donald Trump. We appreciate them … And we are grateful that they are in the positions they were in,” he continued.

The Crew-10 team consists of NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japanese Takuya onishi, and Russian Kirill Peskov.

Throughout his mission, he will conduct a number of scientific experiments, including the flawless tests for future spacecraft designs and exploring the effects of space on the human body.

© 2025 AFP