Four astronauts are scheduled to head to the International Space Station Wednesday night.
Otherwise, the daily rotation of crew members at the space station is being paid special attention as it will allow two NASA astronauts, Suni Williams and Butch Willmore, who had planned the space station for a short time last June, to return to Earth.
Here's what you need to know about the mission: This is the 10th mission to and from the SpaceX Ferry's crew, so you need to know about the mission.
When will it be released and how can I see it?
Four astronauts (two from NASA, one from Japan and the other from Russia) are scheduled to be released on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7:48pm ET.
NASA is broadcasting news of the release that can be seen by the players listed above. The astronauts wore SpaceX flight suits and arrived at the launch site.
The forecast requires a chance of more than 95% of the favorable weather.
Backup launch opportunities are available on Thursday at 7:26pm
Who will make the space this time?
NASA's Anne McLain is the commander of Crew 10, and NASA's Nicole Ayers is the pilot. The other two crew members are Onishya of Jakusa, the Japanese space agency, and Kiril Peskov of Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.
This will be Ayers and Pescov's first space flight and McClain and Onisi's second space flight.
Crew-10 is scheduled to dock at the space station at 6am Thursday.
Will Suni Williams and Butch Willmore be rescued after being stuck in orbit?
A kind of thing.
not much.
The spacecraft that revives Suni Williams and Butch Willmore would have been docked to the space station from late September, and could have returned to Earth at any time.
Williams and Wilmore launched on the space station for a test flight of Starliner, an astronaut capsule built under Boeing's NASA contract last June. Due to propulsion issues, NASA officials decided that Williams and Wilmore would not return to Starliner's Earth. In early September, the spacecraft, which had not been blocked from the space station, reentered the atmosphere and landed in New Mexico without any problems.
When the airline scrambled to re-book passengers after the flight was cancelled, NASA had to find a seat to return to Williams and Willmore's home.
The next space flight was Crew 9. This was lifted a few weeks after Starliner left the space station without anyone on board. Two astronauts assigned to the flight clashed, leaving two seats in the SpaceX Crew Dragon Capsule for Mr Williams and Mr Willmore on their way home.
So, the crew-9 capsule may have brought back two astronauts at any time after that, but it would have understaffed the space station and affected scientific experiments, operations and maintenance.
NASA and SpaceX may have rushed to Crew 10 missions to launch earlier, but NASA officials have decided that it would be best for Williams and Wilmore to join the space station crew and maintain the planned schedule for Crew 10.
When will Williams and Willmore return to Earth?
Once Crew 10 arrives at the space station, preparations for Crew 9 begin.
The crew astronauts and crew-10 overlap on the space station for several days. As early as March 16th, Williams and Wilmore will board the spaceship home with two astronauts, Alexander Golbunov, who arrived with Natha's Nick Hague and Crew-9.
If there are bad weather at a splashdown site off the coast of Florida, their stay could be extended again.
What did the astronauts say about their long-term stay?
In an interview last month, “The Daily” host Michael Barbaro asked the astronauts.
“That's a great question,” Wilmore said. “I think it's a job. It's a great fun. It was fun. I definitely tried it. But are you stuck? No, do you stack it? No. Did you abandon it? No.”
This is the third space trip for both Williams, 59, and Willmore, 62, and they know that it could be the last. “We're heading home,” Williams said. “And it makes you really want to enjoy every part of your time you have here.”
Michael Barbaro contributed the report.
