March 14 (UPI) -- NASA and SpaceX were on track to launch NASA's Crew-10 astronauts to the Space Station Friday night in a mission that will also aim to return Starliner astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore.
The mission launch set for 7:03 p.m. EST was a go as of Friday morning after SpaceX ground teams Thursday resolved an air pocket issue in the hydraulics system for the clamp arm supporting the Falcon 9 rocket.
"I am extremely proud of our NASA and SpaceX ground engineers and joint operations teams in quickly identifying and resolving this issue," said Steve Stich, said NASA Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich in a statement. "I'm especially proud of the team's systematic approach throughout the countdown, analyzing data and making thoughtful decisions to ensure the integrity of our mission. Their commitment to both excellence and safety is a true testament to the strength of this integrated team."
The Crew-10 mission is scheduled to lift off from Florida's Kennedy Space Center Friday night. If needed, a backup launch time is set for Saturday at 6:41 p.m.
Onboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft will be NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.
The Crew-10 mission plans to get to the Space Station docking station at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday.
"Crew-10 will rotate roles with NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 crew, including agency astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. The Crew-9 mission, which has a separate Dragon spacecraft already docked to the space station, will then undock from the orbiting laboratory and return to the Earth. Crew-9 undock is scheduled for no earlier than Wednesday, March 19," NASA said.
Williams and WIlmore will ride back to Earth "no earlier than Wednesday March 19," according to NASA.
SpaceX will start a live webcast of the mission roughly an hour and twenty minutes before liftoff.
"The Dragon spacecraft supporting this mission previously flew NASA's Crew-3, Crew-5, and Crew-7 missions to and from the space station. This will be the second flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched the SES 03b mPOWER-e mission. Following stage separation, Falcon 9's first stage will land on Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station," SpaceX said.
The Crew-10 launch had been scheduled for Wednesday March 12 but got scrubbed by the hydraulics issue on the ground support clamp arm, according to NASA.
That attempt was called off about a half-hour before the scheduled 7:48 p.m. launch.
An air pocket in the hydraulics system was successfully flushed out, enabling Friday's launch.
High winds and precipitation forecasts prevented a Thursday launch.