4 crew members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission launched at 7:03 p.m. EDT Friday from Launch Complicated 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Area Heart in Florida for a science expedition aboard the Worldwide Area Station.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket propelled the Dragon spacecraft into orbit carrying NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. The spacecraft will dock autonomously to the forward-facing port of the station’s Concord module at roughly 11:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 15. Shortly after docking, the crew will be part of Expedition 72/73 for a long-duration keep aboard the orbiting laboratory.
“Congratulations to our NASA and SpaceX groups on the tenth crew rotation mission beneath our industrial crew partnership. This milestone demonstrates NASA’s continued dedication to advancing American management in house and driving progress in our nationwide house economic system,” mentioned NASA performing Administrator Janet Petro. “By means of these missions, we’re laying the muse for future exploration, from low Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars. Our worldwide crew will contribute to modern science analysis and know-how improvement, delivering advantages to all humanity.”
Throughout Dragon’s flight, SpaceX will monitor a collection of computerized spacecraft maneuvers from its mission management middle in Hawthorne, California. NASA will monitor house station operations all through the flight from the Mission Management Heart on the company’s Johnson Area Heart in Houston.
NASA’s reside protection resumes at 9:45 p.m., March 15, on NASA+ with rendezvous, docking, and hatching opening. After docking, the crew will change out of their spacesuits and put together cargo for offload earlier than opening the hatch between Dragon and the house station’s Concord module round 1:05 a.m., Sunday, March 16. As soon as the brand new crew is aboard the orbital outpost, NASA will broadcast welcome remarks from Crew-10 and farewell remarks from the company’s SpaceX Crew-9 crew, starting at about 1:40 a.m.
Discover ways to watch NASA content material by way of quite a lot of platforms, together with social media.
The variety of crew aboard the house station will improve to 11 for a short while as Crew-10 joins NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore, and Don Pettit, in addition to Roscosmos cosmonauts Aleksandr Gorbunov, Alexey Ovchinin, and Ivan Vagner. Following a short handover interval, Hague, Williams, Wilmore, and Gorbunov will return to Earth no sooner than Wednesday, March 19.Forward of Crew-9’s departure from station, mission groups will evaluate climate circumstances on the splashdown websites off the coast of Florida.
Throughout their mission, Crew-10 is scheduled to conduct materials flammability assessments to contribute to future spacecraft and facility designs. The crew will have interaction with college students worldwide by way of the ISS Ham Radio program and use the program’s current {hardware} to check a backup lunar navigation answer. The astronauts additionally will function check topics, with one crew member conducting an built-in research to raised perceive physiological and psychological adjustments to the human physique to offer priceless insights for future deep house missions.
With this mission, NASA continues to maximise using the orbiting laboratory, the place folks have lived and labored constantly for greater than 24 years, testing applied sciences, performing science, and creating the abilities wanted to function future industrial locations in low Earth orbit and discover farther from our residence planet. Analysis performed on the house station advantages folks on Earth and paves the best way for future long-duration missions to the Moon beneath NASA’s Artemis marketing campaign and past.
Extra about Crew-10
McClain is the commander of Crew-10 and is making her second journey to the orbital outpost since her choice as an astronaut in 2013. She’s going to function a flight engineer throughout Expeditions 72/73 aboard the house station. Comply with McClain on X.
Ayers is the pilot of Crew-10 and is flying her first mission. Chosen as an astronaut in 2021, Ayers will function a flight engineer throughout Expeditions 72/73. Comply with Ayers on X and Instagram.
Onishi is a mission specialist for Crew-10 and is making his second flight to the house station. He’ll function a flight engineer throughout Expeditions 72/73. Comply with Onishi on X.
Peskov is a mission specialist for Crew-10 and is making his first flight to the house station. Peskov will function a flight engineer throughout Expeditions 72/73.
Study extra about NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission and the company’s Industrial Crew Program at:
https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew
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Josh Finch / Jimi Russell
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / james.j.russell@nasa.gov
Steven Siceloff / Stephanie Plucinsky
Kennedy Area Heart, Florida
321-867-2468
steven.p.siceloff@nasa.gov / stephanie.n.plucinsky@nasa.gov
Kenna Pell / Sandra Jones
Johnson Area Heart, Houston
281-483-5111
kenna.m.pell@nasa.gov / sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov
