Crew10 members. Crew10 members, from left, cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, astronaut Nichole Ayers, astronaut Anne McClain and JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi leave the Operations and Checkout building before heading to Launch Pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., for a mission to the International Space Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, March 14, 2025. Associated Press
NASA's replacement crew launched to the International Space Station on Friday night, clearing the way for astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to return after nine months in orbit.
Wilmore and Williams must wait for SpaceX's relief team to arrive before they can depart. The new crew is set to reach the station late Saturday night.
NASA's goal is to ensure crew overlap so that astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams can brief their replacements before departing the International Space Station (ISS). If all goes as planned, they will undock next week and splash down off the Florida coast, weather permitting.
The pair will return with astronauts who arrived last September on a SpaceX rescue mission, which included two empty seats reserved for Wilmore and Williams.
Rocketing toward orbit from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, the newest crew includes NASA's Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, both military pilots, alongside Japan's Takuya Onishi and Russia's Kirill Peskov, both former airline pilots. They will spend six months at the space station, considered the standard mission duration, after relieving Wilmore and Williams.
Wilmore and Williams, test pilots for Boeing's Starliner capsule, originally expected a one-week mission when they launched from Cape Canaveral on June 5. However, helium leaks and thruster failures disrupted their trip, triggering months of investigation by NASA and Boeing.
Deeming Starliner unsafe for return, NASA ordered it to fly back empty last September and moved Wilmore and Williams to a SpaceX flight originally scheduled for February. That return was further delayed due to battery repairs on SpaceX's brand-new capsule, prompting the switch to a used capsule, accelerating their homecoming to mid-March.
Their extended mission has drawn political attention, as President Donald Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk vowed earlier this year to expedite their return and blamed the previous administration for delays.
Despite the challenges, Wilmore and Williams have supported NASA's decisions and remained active contributors to ISS operations—repairing a toilet, watering plants, conducting experiments, and even performing a spacewalk together. Williams, now holding nine spacewalks, set a new record for women for the most career spacewalking hours.
A last-minute hydraulics issue delayed the first launch attempt on Wednesday when concerns arose over one of two clamp arms on the Falcon rocket's support structure. SpaceX later flushed the system to remove trapped air, resolving the problem.
For Wilmore and Williams, the hardest part of the mission has been its impact on their families—Wilmore's wife and two daughters, and Williams' husband and mother. Now, Wilmore, a church elder, looks forward to resuming in-person ministering, while Williams is eager to walk her two Labrador retrievers.
"We appreciate all the love and support from everybody," Williams said earlier this week. "This mission has brought attention—there are good and bad aspects—but the best part is that more people are interested in what we're doing in space exploration."
Reporting by the Associated Press contributed to this story.
This is a developing news story and will be updated as more information is available.
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This story was originally published March 14, 2025 at 7:11 PM.