March 15, 2025, 12:28 AM PDT – SpaceX successfully launched the Crew-10 mission on March 14, 2025, at 7:03 p.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral, Florida, using a Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft. The SpaceX launch today, originating from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A, marks the agency’s 10th crew rotation to the International Space Station (ISS) and a critical step in retrieving two astronauts who have been stranded since 2024.
The Crew 10 launch team includes NASA commander Anne McClain, pilot Nichole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, as reported by NASA. The mission, part of a SpaceX rescue mission, aims to deliver the crew to the ISS and enable the return of NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have remained on the station since June 2024 due to technical issues with Boeing’s Starliner, per The Guardian.
Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, astronauts stuck in space, were originally scheduled for an eight-day test flight but have now spent over nine months on the ISS, as detailed by Space.com. The NASA launch today will see Crew-10 dock with the ISS’s Harmony module around 11:30 p.m. EDT on March 15, facilitating their return on the Crew-9 Dragon spacecraft, according to Reuters.
The Falcon 9 launch was broadcast live on NASA+ and SpaceX platforms, with the rocket traveling at 17,500 miles per hour to reach the ISS, a journey taking approximately 14 hours, as noted by WESH. The mission, launched under clear weather conditions at Cape Canaveral, will see the Crew-10 astronauts conduct scientific experiments and maintenance tasks on the ISS for about six months, per Fox Business.
Additional updates on the mission’s docking and the astronauts’ return will be released as operations progress.
