Having spent more than eight months in space, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams’s prolonged spaceflight mission is scheduled to conclude in March.
In an exclusive discussion with CNN from space, NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Willmore revealed that the Crew-10 mission is set to launch from Earth on March 12 and will link up with the International Space Station (ISS) for a six-month mission.
The two astronauts will subsequently transfer their responsibilities, leading to a transition in which a new Space Station Commander assumes control.
At present, Sunita Williams serves as the commander of the flying laboratory.
After a week-long transition, the two astronauts will enter the Dragon spacecraft that transported Crew-10 to space for their return to Earth. The Dragon spacecraft carrying two experienced astronauts is set to undock on March 19.
“The plan is that Crew-10 will launch on March 12, do a turnover for a week and we will return on March 19,” astronaut Butch Willmore told CNN in the interview.
The return of two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who traveled to the International Space Station aboard Boeing’s defective Starliner capsule last summer, has depended on the arrival of Crew-10’s four-member team to maintain the station’s American crew at standard levels.
The choice comes after President Donald Trump’s sudden request to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk last month to return Wilmore and Williams to Earth “as quickly as possible,” urging for a conclusion to their mission that was largely determined last year.
