“NASA and SpaceX have decided to stand down Wednesday, March 12, from the agency’s Crew-10 mission to the International Space Station. NASA will share more about the next launch opportunities when available,” NASA said in a statement.
The launch was scrubbed just before liftoff at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with officials citing a technical issue at the rocket’s launchpad. It remains unclear when the next attempt will take place, but the nature of the problem suggests that NASA and SpaceX could make another attempt in the coming days.
Nine-month wait for Wilmore and Williams
Wilmore and Williams had originally traveled to the ISS in June aboard Boeing’s Starliner, a spacecraft that encountered propulsion system failures, preventing NASA from approving its return flight to Earth. Instead, the space agency devised a plan to bring them home aboard a SpaceX capsule—an effort that has now been delayed once again.
NASA had initially scheduled Crew-10’s launch for March 26 but moved it up by two weeks following calls from President Donald Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to expedite the astronauts’ return. Trump and Musk have claimed—without providing evidence—that delays in bringing Wilmore and Williams home were due to mismanagement under President Joe Biden.
The situation has added an unusual political dimension to what would otherwise be a routine crew rotation mission. Crew-10, consisting of two NASA astronauts along with one astronaut each from Japan and Russia, was scheduled to relieve Wilmore, Williams, and two other ISS crew members—NASA’s Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov—who have been awaiting their return flight.
Williams, who has remained safe aboard the ISS, spoke about the prolonged stay during a March 4 press call.
“It’s been a roller coaster for them, probably a little bit more so than for us,” Williams said of her family. “We’re here, we have a mission – we’re just doing what we do every day, and every day is interesting because we’re up in space and it’s a lot of fun.”
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