KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. —NASA and SpaceX’s Crew-10 astronauts will arrive at the Kennedy Space Center on Friday, March 7, to prepare for their flight to the International Space Station. 

The arrival of Crew-10 at the ISS will allow for Crew-9 and the Starliner astronauts to return home to Earth. The Starliner crew could not return on their own troubled craft.  

What You Need To Know

  • NASA and SpaceX prepare for the first crewed launch of 2025 on March 12. Crew-10 will liftoff, sending four members to the ISS

  • The arrival of Crew-10 at the ISS will allow for Crew-9 and the Starliner astronauts to return home to Earth

  • This is the 10th crew rotation flight mission with SpaceX to the space station, and the 11th human spaceflight as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program

Crew-10 is set to liftoff on Wednesday, March 12 at 7:48 p.m. ET from Launch Complex 39A at KSC for a nearly five-month mission on the ISS, returning in July.  

The four crew members include NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.

The crew will perform research, technology demonstrations, and maintenance activities aboard the microgravity laboratory.

This is the 10th crew rotation flight mission with SpaceX to the space station, and the 11th human spaceflight as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

NASA announced in February that it was “accelerating” the target launch of the Crew-10 mission as they change out the Dragon capsule.

With the earlier launch date set, this will allow Starliner mission astronauts Sunita “Suni” Williams and Butch Wilmore to return home a bit sooner.

The two astronauts ended up on a 9-month stay at the ISS after Boeing’s Starliner capsule experienced several issues before, during and after it was launched into space.

Boeing and NASA decided to return the capsule to Earth in September 2024 without their two-member crew.

The Crew-9 mission launched weeks later with plans to bring home the two "stranded" astronauts. Once Crew-10 arrives at the space station, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov will return home with Wilmore and Williams.

Before the first crewed launch of 2025, teams will assess the rocket and spacecraft system, making sure all components are certified for flight. Teams will then mate the Dragon capsule to the Falcon 9 rocket in SpaceX’s hangar at the launch site.

Once the two are integrated, it will get rolled to the pad and raised to a vertical position for a dry dress rehearsal with the crew and an integrated static fire test prior to launch.

Following liftoff, the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon will accelerate to 17,500 mph. Once in orbit, SpaceX’s mission control team in California will monitor a series of maneuvers to guide Dragon to the space station’s Harmony module port, according to NASA. The spacecraft will dock automatically, but if necessary, the crew can pilot manually.

Once onboard, there will be a brief handoff period between crews.

Crew-9 will depart for Earth after mission teams on Earth review weather conditions at splashdown sites off the coast of Florida.

During their stay on the ISS, Crew-10 members will conduct more than 200 scientific experiments and technology demonstrations, NASA said, including:

  • Research to prepare for human exploration beyond low Earth-orbit and benefit humanity on Earth
  • Material flammability tests for future spacecraft designs
  • Engage with students via ham radio and use its existing hardware to test a backup lunar navigation solution
  • Participate in an integrated study to better understand physiological and psychological changes to the human body to provide valuable insights for future deep space missions

Learn more about the space station, its research, and crew, at: https://www.nasa.gov/station