March 10, 2025 – Kennedy Space Center, FL – It’s “all systems go” for Crew 10 following their arrival at Kennedy Space Center in Florida last Friday. The crew has since successfully completed a wet dress rehearsal in preparation for their six-month mission.
The 10th rotational crew to the International Space Station (ISS) seemed to be in high spirits, arriving from the NASA Astronaut Training Center in Houston Texas aboard a NASA Gulfstream jet. The crew is now in a quarantine period, as well as final training prior to their scheduled March 12th launch to the ISS.
The arrival of the four astronauts sets the stage for what might be the most critical crewed launch yet to the ISS. Relieving Crew 9 for a six month tour aboard the station, the crew changeover will finally allow astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to return to earth after nearly 9 months in space. Wilmore and Williams were integrated into Crew 9 as part of a contingency plan when their Boeing Starliner capsule was deemed to be unsafe for their return on what was to have been an eight-day mission. The additional time in space for Wilmore and Williams has since generated considerable controversy as many media outlets and politicians have continually referred to the pair as “stranded in space”.
After arrival at the Kennedy Space Center on March 7, the crew was greeted by NASA officials, SpaceX teams, and members of the press. During the event, McClain expressed enthusiasm about the mission, emphasizing the importance of their work aboard the ISS, which will include scientific research, technology demonstrations, and station maintenance. Crew 10 has been training for its mission since the fall of 2023. If their appearance Friday is any indication, no one can deny that Crew 10 is a tight-knit team.
Crew 10 Images Credit Eric Moore/FMN
The Crew-10 team consists of astronauts Anne McClain (NASA) -Mission Commander, Michole Ayers (NASA) – Pilot, Takuya Onishi (JAXA) – Mission Specialist, and Cosmonaut Kirill Peskov (Roscosmos) – Mission Specialist. The crew completed a “Wet Dress Rehearsal” on Sunday, which simulates all launch day activities, including the crew suiting up and being strapped into their Dragon Capsule atop a Falcon 9 booster.
SpaceX
Crew-9 will depart the ISS a few days after Crew 10’s arrival, following a planned handover period which ensures a seamless transition of responsibilities. Crew-10’s launch is currently targeted for no earlier than March 12, 2025 at 7:48 pm EDT, from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A.
The new mission will continue biological and materials science experiments begun by Crew 9, along with starting some new ones. An overriding theme of the crewed flights has been to continue a physiology study to determine the effects of space on the human body in the long term. A thorough understanding of how the human body reacts to space will be critical to future long-term deep space missions such as any missions to Mars.
