Sat Mar 15 03:44:48 UTC 2025: ## SpaceX Successfully Launches Crew-10, Bringing Stranded Astronauts Home
**Cape Canaveral, FL** – SpaceX successfully launched the Crew-10 mission last night, carrying a four-person crew to the International Space Station (ISS) to bring home astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been stranded for over nine months. The Falcon 9 rocket launched at 7:03 pm EST from Kennedy Space Center, with its first stage booster successfully landing at Landing Zone 1 ten minutes later.
Williams and Wilmore’s extended stay resulted from propulsion issues with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft during their initial mission. What should have been a short trip became a prolonged stay exceeding the standard six-month astronaut rotation. They are returning with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
Crew-10, comprising NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan’s Takuya Onishi, and Russia’s Kirill Peskov, will conduct various scientific experiments during their mission, including flammability tests and research on the effects of space on the human body. The Crew-10 spacecraft is expected to dock at the ISS at 11:30 pm EST, with Crew-9’s departure and a planned ocean splashdown off the Florida coast anticipated by March 19th.
The situation has sparked political controversy. Former President Donald Trump and SpaceX founder Elon Musk have publicly accused President Joe Biden of intentionally abandoning Williams and Wilmore, rejecting a proposal for an earlier return. Musk criticized Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen for questioning the mission, while Trump made controversial remarks about the stranded astronauts during a White House press conference. The former president referred to Williams, a decorated former naval captain, as “the woman with the wild hair,” speculating about the personal dynamic between the two stranded astronauts.
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