Crew-10 astronauts to depart ISS: How they set stage for ‘stuck' Starliner crew to leave

USA Today

5 days ago

Four Crew-10 astronauts arrived March 15 at the International Space Station, making it possible for NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who crewed the Starliner, to depart.
In mid-March, four spacefarers arrived at the International Space Station on a mission that at any other time would have been relatively routine and unremarkable.
NASA astronauts Nichole Ayers and Anne McClain were joined by Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov on a mission known as Crew-10 that took on far more significance than most of the regular ventures jointly carried out by SpaceX and NASA.
As expected, awaiting the Crew-10 contingent at the orbital outpost were months of scientific experiments tailored to be conducted in microgravity. Crucially, though, the mission also attracted plenty of headlines and fanfare as it cemented its place in spaceflight history for its role in ending the infamous Starliner saga.
The Crew-9 team may have arrived in September on a spacecraft with room for the two astronauts who crewed the doomed Boeing Starliner to hitch a ride home. But it was the arrival of the Crew-10 astronauts at the space station that set the stage for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to make their long-awaited homecoming.
Now that the Crew-10 astronaut are soon due to depart the space station more than four months later, here's everything to know about the mission and why it made headlines during the Starliner debacle.
Remembering the Boeing Starliner: Look back at mission's biggest moments
What was the Crew-10 mission? Astronauts relieve 'stuck' Starliner crew
The March 15 arrival of Crew-10 astronauts at the International Space Station made it possible for NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who arrived in June on the doomed Starliner, to finally depart.
The mission got off the ground the day prior from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The U.S. space agency had originally been working toward a February liftoff before announcing in December 2024 that the mission had been pushed to late-March to give SpaceX more time to prepare a new Dragon capsule.
The launch date was then moved back up to mid-March – most likely due to pressure from President Donald Trump and SpaceX founder Elon Musk – when NASA decided to instead use a "previously flown" Dragon.
The Dragon spacecraft docked at the orbital outpost following a 28-hour journey, allowing the crew to exit the vehicle and enter the space station through its Harmony module. Once aboard, the four Crew-10 spacefarers officially greeted the Expedition 72 crew members, including the astronauts who flew aboard the Starliner.
What happened with the Boeing Starliner?
Selected for the inaugural crewed flight of the Boeing Starliner, Wilmore and Williams became fixtures of the news cycle when the vehicle they flew to the space station in June 2024 encountered a series of technical issues.
NASA and Boeing ultimately decided that the troubled Starliner capsule wasn't safe enough to crew, and would instead undock and return to Earth with them.
On Sept. 28, 2024, NASA launched the SpaceX Crew-9 mission as planned, but with one crucial change: Just two astronauts – Nick Hague of NASA and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov – headed to the space station on a Dragon instead of four to leave two empty seats on their vehicle reserved for Wilmore and Williams.
NASA opted to keep Williams and Wilmore at the station a few extra months rather than launch an emergency mission to return them to Earth to avoid having the station be understaffed.
Williams and Wilmore eventually departed the space station with the Crew-9 team and safely landed March 17 off the Florida Coast following the arrival of the Crew-10 mission.
When will SpaceX launch Crew-11 astronauts on NASA mission?
Now, the astronauts of the Crew-10 mission are due to return to Earth themselves following the impending arrival of their own replacements.
The Crew-11 mission is due to get off the ground no earlier than 12:09 p.m. ET Thursday, July 31, from near Cape Canaveral, Florida, according to NASA.
As the name suggests, Crew-11 is NASA and SpaceX's 11th science expedition to the International Space Station.
The missions, most of which last about six months, are contracted under NASA's commercial crew program. The program allows the U.S. space agency to pay SpaceX to launch and transport astronauts and cargo to orbit aboard the company's own vehicles, freeing up NASA to focus on its Artemis lunar program and other spaceflight missions, including future crewed voyages to Mars.
Selected for the mission are NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Russian Oleg Platonov, a Roscosmos cosmonaut.
SpaceX uses its Falcon 9 rocket – one of the most active in the world – to launch the crew missions from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The astronauts themselves ride a Dragon crew capsule – the only U.S. spacecraft capable of carrying astronauts to and from the space station – which separates from the rocket in orbit.
Ahead of the planned launch, the Dragon has been stacked atop the Falcon 9 rocket, which was rolled out Sunday, July 27 to the launch pad before being raised to a vertical position, according to NASA.
When will the Crew-10 astronauts depart ISS, return to Earth?
The arrival of Cardman, Fincke, Yui and Platonov will ultimately pave the way for their predecessors, the Crew-10 contingent, to depart the space station and head back to Earth.
But the Crew-10 astronauts won't leave right away. What follows upon the arrival of any astronauts is a brief handover period in which the new crew members are familiarized with the orbital laboratory and station operations.
McClain, Ayers, Onishi and Peskov will then depart a few days later on the same Dragon capsule that transported them to the space station. Mission teams will also have to review weather conditions off the coast of California, where the Dragon will eventually make a water landing.
Who else is at the International Space Station?
Another three spacefarers are also living and working about the International Space Station as members of Expedition 73.
That includes NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, who reached the outpost in April 2025 with cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky.
Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at [e-mail]