SpaceX launches Crew-10 mission tonight to relieve Crew-9 and Starliner crew

telcodad

NASA, SpaceX to launch Crew-10 astronaut mission on Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center
Spaceflight Now - March 12, 2025
https://spaceflightnow.com/2025/03/12/live-coverage-nasa-spacex-to-launch-crew-10-astronaut-mission-on-falcon-9-rocket-from-kennedy-space-center/

NASA and SpaceX are preparing to launch a new four crew to the International Space Station on Wednesday evening to relieve the station’s current crew, including the two astronauts who originally launched on Starliner. …

Hey Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams - help is on the way! 🙂

telcodad

Unfortunately, the launch has been scrubbed today. Sounded like it was due to some kind of hydraulics issue.

NASA, SpaceX Standing Down From Wednesday’s Launch Attempt
NASA - March 12, 2025
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/commercialcrew/2025/03/12/nasa-spacex-standing-down-from-wednesdays-launch-attempt/

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.

telcodad

Crew-10 launch scrubbed over hydraulic ground issue, officials confirm
https://www.wesh.com/article/crew-10-launch-scrubbed-florida/64167707

Four astronauts were expected to launch from Florida on Wednesday and embark on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission to the International Space Station.

However, the launch was scrubbed due to a hydraulic ground issue, according to officials.

The launch was originally set for 7:48 p.m., but at approximately 7:13 p.m., NASA and SpaceX officials announced their decision to postpone the attempt.

NASA Crew-10 Blog: https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/crew-10/

Sparkchaser

telcodad
Wow! Butch and Suni can’t catch a break. You got to be made of the “right stuff” to handle what they’ve put up with.

telcodad

From: https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/crew-10/

NASA, SpaceX Target March 14 Crew Launch to Space Station
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/commercialcrew/2025/03/12/nasa-spacex-target-march-14-crew-launch-to-space-station/

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 now is targeting no earlier than 7:03 p.m. EDT Friday, March 14, to launch four crew members to the International Space Station. Mission managers met this evening and decided to wave off a launch attempt on Thursday, March 13, due to high winds and precipitation forecasted in the flight path of Dragon.

MacLeech

Sparkchaser Wow! Butch and Suni can’t catch a break. You got to be made of the “right stuff” to handle what they’ve put up with.

“Put up with”, “catch a break”? I hope you’re joking.

Butch and Suni became part of the current ISS Crew-9 mission, which was always scheduled to return in March 2025 after Crew-10 arrived. They’re returning in the Dragon capsule Freedom, that brought up the other 2 members of Crew-9, which has been docked to the ISS since September. Both had flown to space 2 previous times, been previous crew members, and previous commanders of the ISS. Suni has been the current ISS Commander since the Change of Command procedure was completed in September, and recently handed that duty off to one of the Cosmonauts on board.

They weren’t “stranded” or “stuck” and never “needed rescuing”. The only thing they “put up with” and couldn’t “catch a break” from was sensationalist media clickbait portraying them as such.

telcodad

Latest update:

NASA, SpaceX Prepare for March 14 Crew Launch to Space Station
March 13, 2025
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/commercialcrew/2025/03/13/nasa-spacex-prepare-for-march-14-crew-launch-to-space-station/

NASA and SpaceX are proceeding with plans to launch the agency’s Crew-10 mission at 7:03 p.m. EDT Friday, March 14, to the International Space Station. On Thursday, SpaceX ground teams completed inspections of the ground support hydraulics system used for the clamp arm supporting the Falcon 9 rocket and successfully flushed a suspected pocket of trapped air in the system.

Launch coverage will begin at 3 p.m. on March 14 on NASA+: https://plus.nasa.gov/scheduled-video/nasas-spacex-crew-10-launch/#fullscreen-player

Weather is forecasted to be excellent on the Space Coast heading into the March 14 launch opportunity. The current forecast is a greater-than-95% chance of acceptable conditions at launch. Weather along the Atlantic coast is also expected to be favorable for the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft’s trip to orbit. Chances of weather violations increase on Saturday, March 15, and Sunday, March 16, to 50% and 60%, respectively. …

broknsymetry

It’s good that they are not attempting a lunar mission tonight since there is an eclipse,

InternetJeff

broknsymetry It’s good that they are not attempting a lunar mission tonight since there is an eclipse,

😁

Heat84

It finally launched:

Is this the first time the booster rocket landed on land instead of on the barge? It’s amazing how effortless it looked. They didn’t need anything to catch it. Landing struts just unfolded and locked in place, then the rocket just calmly landed: Is somebody controlling it, or is it on auto pilot?

telcodad

Heat84 Is this the first time the booster rocket landed on land instead of on the barge? It’s amazing how effortless it looked. They didn’t need anything to catch it. Landing struts just unfolded and locked in place, then the rocket just calmly landed: Is somebody controlling it, or is it on auto pilot?

No, first stage boosters have been landing at the KSC for quite a while now.

The landing is all controlled automatically by the booster itself.

MacLeech

Heat84 Even more amazing is when they land two at once, side by side.

Whether they land them back at the launch site, land on the barges, or expend them is a function of how much boost/fuel they need to get a payload to the needed orbit. Heavier payloads and higher orbits need more fuel, leaving less to get back to the launch site.

Lots of launch and landing stats here:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_and_Falcon_Heavy_launches
https://spacexnow.com/stats

The first successful booster landing back at the launch site was in 2015. Falcon family boosters have successfully landed a total of 415 times in 428 attempts with 85 being launch site landings, that’s why it looks so smooth now.

Astyanax

Heat84 then the rocket just calmly landed

There’s nothing “calm” about it when those suckers come down making the windows bow in and out in my office blowing me out of my chair from the double sonic booms while I’m trying to talk on the phone!

Still it is pretty neat after I realize what it is. I do sometimes mumble a “Damn Elon!” to myself afterwards though. 😉

Astyanax

Heat84 It finally launched:

It was apparently a big hit here too. I missed it though having other commitments Friday night.

https://www.floridatoday.com/story/tech/science/space/2025/03/14/crowd-reacts-to-falcon-9-booster-rocket-nasa-spacex-crew-10-launch-brevard-florida/82308016007/

InternetJeff

MacLeech Whether they land them back at the launch site, land on the barges, or expend them is a function of how much boost/fuel they need to get a payload to the needed orbit. Heavier payloads and higher orbits need more fuel, leaving less to get back to the launch site.

Another aspect of being able to land back at Cape Canaveral versus having to land on the ship out in the ocean is the trajectory of the orbit that they have to meet. Most if not all of the Starlink launches put that trajectory out to where the booster cannot get back to land at the Cape and has to land on the ship.

Heat84

MacLeech Whenever a launch is on the news, they always show the barge landing. If I watched the launches like you geeks do on the live streams instead of just catching the highlights on the news, I would see more land landings. But I prefer going outside to watch, which I used to be able to do with the Space Shuttle from here in South East Florida. But the SpaceX launches usually head North, so I’ve only seen 1 of those going outside🙁.

telcodad

The Crew-10 Crew Dragon capsule, named Endurance, is scheduled to dock with the ISS around 11:30 p.m. EDT tonight:

Watch SpaceX’s Crew-10 astronaut mission arrive at the ISS tonight
Crew-10 is expected to dock with the station today (March 15) at about 11:30 p.m. EDT.
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/international-space-station/spacex-crew-10-astronaut-mission-international-space-station-docking

SpaceX’s Crew-10 astronaut mission will arrive at the International Space Station tonight (March 15), and you can watch the action live.

Crew-10 launched on Friday evening (March 14) atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, sending four astronauts from three different nations toward the orbiting lab.

That chase will end today: Crew-10’s Crew Dragon capsule, named Endurance, is scheduled to dock with the station’s Harmony module around 11:30 p.m. EDT (0330 GMT on March 16). You can watch the arrival live via NASA, starting at 9:45 p.m. EDT (0145 GMT): https://plus.nasa.gov/scheduled-video/nasas-spacex-crew-10-rendezvous-and-docking/

Space.com will carry the feed as well, if the agency makes it available.

There will be other milestones to watch after docking as well. The hatches between Endurance and the International Space Station (ISS) are expected to open around 1:05 a.m. EDT (0505 GMT) on Sunday (March 16), and the astronauts already living on the orbiting lab will hold a welcome ceremony for the new arrivals about 30 minutes later.

Those new arrivals are NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Takuya Onishi of JAXA (the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and Kirill Peskov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos.

McClain is the Crew-10 commander. Ayers is the pilot, and Onishi and Peskov are mission specialists. The quartet will stay aboard the ISS for about six months, the usual duration for crew rotations.

Crew-9’s Dragon Freedom is expected to depart the station a few days from now, returning Williams, Wilmore, Hague and Gorbunov to Earth under Freedom’s parachutes, for a splashdown somewhere off the coast of Florida some hours following their undocking.

telcodad

telcodad The Crew-10 Crew Dragon capsule, named Endurance, is scheduled to dock with the ISS around 11:30 p.m. EDT tonight:

Watch SpaceX’s Crew-10 astronaut mission arrive at the ISS tonight
Crew-10 is expected to dock with the station today (March 15) at about 11:30 p.m. EDT.
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/international-space-station/spacex-crew-10-astronaut-mission-international-space-station-docking

Not sure if anyone else noticed this, but Crew-10 was also the first to include an astronaut that was recruited from Area 51. 😃

SpaceX Rescue Crew Member Wears ‘Alien’ Costume to Greet Stranded Astronauts Before They Head Back to Earth
https://people.com/spacex-rescue-crew-stranded-astronauts-11697857

MacLeech

Heat84 The majority of SpaceX booster landings (80% and increasing) are on their landing barges. The landings back at the launch site are almost always shown in news highlights, if cameras are available, because it’s rather uncommon. SpaceX launches are so common now, 2-3 times a week, many don’t make the news at all.

I was watching the livestream of the SpaceX Starlink launch last night from Vandenberg as I stood in my driveway watching the rocket fly south across the sky outside. As with the vast majority of Starlink launches from Vandenberg, the booster landed on a barge near Baja California.

Astyanax

Heat84

They’d prefer to land the boosters on land but usually the payloads require higher orbital altitudes therefore longer burn times from the boosters forcing them to fly further out to sea using more of their propellant not leaving enough for them to make it back to land hence the landing barge out at sea.

Sometimes missions have altitudes so high they sacrifice the booster altogether and let it burn up or just let it fall into the ocean old school style.

Heat84

MacLeech I was watching the livestream of the SpaceX Starlink launch last night from Vandenberg as I stood in my driveway watching the rocket fly south across the sky outside.

I used to do that with the Shuttle launches. But not so much anymore with SpaceX since they usually head North.☹️

telcodad

And here’s the video of the “alien” entering the ISS:

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6370112527112

Heat84

Astyanax There’s was no sound in the clip, so I had no idea.