SpaceX delays retrieval of space station’s stuck astronauts

SpaceX scrubbed the launch of its Falcon 9 rocket planned for Wednesday evening about 45 minutes before liftoff due to a hydraulics issue. The problem involved a clamp arm on the transporter-erector structure, which moves the rocket into place and stabilizes it for launch, according to Space.com. The launch is now planned for around 7 p.m. EST Friday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The mission, named Crew-10, will bring a new team to the International Space Station to replace its current crew—which includes two astronauts stranded on the station since June 2024. Planning on a short mission, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore flew to the station aboard an experimental Boeing Starliner, which NASA deemed unsafe for a return trip. The two integrated into the station’s next crew, Crew-9, which arrived in September 2024 aboard a SpaceX Dragon spaceship. The Dragon craft, which has remained docked at the space station, will bring back Williams and Wilmore along with the other two Crew-9 astronauts. If the new SpaceX mission launches on Friday, the Crew-9 group should be able to depart for Earth by March 19, NASA said.

The Crew-10 mission members replacing them are NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.

Did Williams and Wilmore remain at the International Space Station for political reasons? Both SpaceX founder Elon Musk and United States President Donald Trump have claimed that the Biden administration abandoned the astronauts for political reasons. Musk said Biden’s government rebuffed his earlier offer to bring them back, but a former NASA official disputed that claim. Going back to August 2024, NASA  has planned for Williams and Wilmore to remain on the station until February 2025.

Dig deeper: Read my report on the first moon landing by a privately owned craft.