'Rescue mission': How Elon Musk's SpaceX will bring NASA's Sunita Williams back on Earth
Produced by Tarun Mishra
Produced by Tarun Mishra
NASA astronaut Sunita Williams and her crewmate Butch Wilmore are preparing to return to Earth after more than eight months aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Their mission, originally planned for a short duration, was extended due to technical issues with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft.
A SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, carrying four new astronauts as part of NASA’s Crew-10 mission, will launch aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 13. This mission will replace the current Crew-9 members on the ISS.
NASA astronauts Anne McClain (commander) and Nichole Ayers (pilot), along with JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov (mission specialists), have completed pre-launch preparations. They are scheduled to lift off at 5:18 AM IST on March 13.
Once launched, the Dragon spacecraft will separate from the Falcon 9 rocket and travel for approximately 12 hours before docking with the ISS. This marks the start of the Crew-10 mission, allowing them to take over operations from Crew-9.
Sunita Williams, serving as ISS commander, will oversee the transition of scientific experiments and station operations to the new crew. This handover process is expected to last a few days to a week before the Crew-9 astronauts begin their return journey.
Williams and Wilmore, along with the rest of Crew-9, will board the Crew Dragon Freedom spacecraft for undocking, scheduled for March 16 at around 6:30 PM IST. However, the timing could be adjusted depending on weather conditions at the splashdown site.
The spacecraft will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and is expected to land in the Atlantic Ocean, where recovery teams will assist in retrieval. This will mark the official conclusion of the Crew-9 mission, bringing Williams and her crew back after nearly ten months in space.
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