Astronauten Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore are expected to return faster to the earth than expected after National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) made an important announcement on Tuesday. The US Space Agency revealed that it replaced the astronautcapsule with its crew-10 mission by a previously flown SpaceX Crew Dragon.
NASA accelerates the goalance and return dates, stated in a post on X: “NASA and SpaceX accelerate the goaling and return dates for the upcoming Crew Rotation Missions to and from Space Station. Crew10 launch is now the target for 12 March. “The four-member expedition team of Crew-10 Mission has been set to bring the astronauts back to Earth.
NASAs updated timeline
The updated timeline for the upcoming Crew Rotation Missions to and from the International Space Station has now been moved until 12 March. The launch was previously planned for March 25. However, the new launch date is “Inhing Mission Readiness and Completion of Flight Readiness. “According to NASA, Crew-9 Mission will return after completing a transfer procedure with the newly arrived Crew-10 Expedition Team.
Change in plan
This change in the schedule was possible because Mission Management Team decided to change the original plan of NASA due to the delays of production when arranging a new capsule. Since then, the crew-10 mission with Dragon SpaceCraft would require extra processing time, the agency decided to use an already flown SpaceX crew tarragon capsule.
Crew 10 Mission Capsule
Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore are returned to previously flown Dragon Capsule called 'Endurance'. NASA said in a statement: “Teams will work to complete Dragon's renovation and prepare the spacecraft for flight, including Trunk Stack, Driving Gas Tax and Transport to SpaceX's Hangar at 39A in Nasa's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to be linked with the Missions Falcona 9 Rocket. “
The two astronauts had flown to the ISS on Boeing's Starliner capsule on 5 June 2024 for a stay of eight days. Following several hooks in the spacecraft, including a helium leak, they were left at the space station, where Sunita Williams takes the lead over the ISS.
