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Crew-10 to swap out astronauts stuck on space station

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Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been on ISS for nine

months

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SpaceX sets faster pace for NASA pre-launch check process

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Wilmore and Williams could return to Earth March 19

(Adds astronaut quotes, details of launch, background

throughout)

By Joey Roulette

WASHINGTON, March 14 (Reuters) - NASA and SpaceX on

Friday launched a long-awaited crew to the International Space

Station that will let them bring home U.S. astronauts Butch

Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been stuck on the orbital

lab for nine months.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 7:03 p.m. ET (2303 GMT)

from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying four

astronauts who will replace Wilmore and Williams, both of whom

are veteran NASA astronauts and retired U.S. Navy test pilots

and were the first to fly Boeing's ( BA ) faulty Starliner

capsule to the ISS in June.

Otherwise a routine crew rotation flight, Friday's Crew-10

mission is a long-awaited first step to bring the astronaut duo

back to Earth - part of a plan set by NASA last year that more

recently has been given greater urgency by President Donald

Trump.

After the Crew-10 astronauts' ISS arrival on Saturday at

11:30 p.m. ET, Wilmore and Williams are scheduled to depart on

March 19, along with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian

cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. Hague and Gorbunov flew to the ISS

in September on a Crew Dragon craft with two empty seats for

Wilmore and Williams.

The Crew-10 crew, which will stay on the station for

roughly six months, includes NASA astronauts Anne McClain and

Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and Russian

cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.

Minutes after reaching orbit, McClain, part of NASA's

astronaut corps since 2013, introduced the mission's

microgravity indicator - per tradition in American spaceflight

to signal the crew safely reached space - as a plush origami

crane, "the international symbol for peace, hope and healing."

"It is far easier to be enemies than it is to be

friends, it's easier to break partnerships and relationships

than it is to build them," McClain said from the Crew Dragon

capsule, her communications live-streamed by NASA.

"Spaceflight is hard, and success depends on leaders of

character who choose a harder right over the easier wrong, and

who build programs, partnerships and relationships. We explore

for the benefit of all," she said.

The mission became entangled in politics as Trump and his

adviser Elon Musk, who is also SpaceX's CEO, urged for a quicker

Crew-10 launch and claimed without evidence that former

President Joe Biden had abandoned Wilmore and Williams on the

station for political reasons.

"We came prepared to stay long, even though we planned to

stay short," Wilmore told reporters from space earlier this

month, adding that he did not believe NASA's decision to keep

them on the ISS until Crew-10's arrival had been affected by

politics.

"That's what your nation's human spaceflight program's all

about," he said, "planning for unknown, unexpected

contingencies. And we did that."

NASA officials have said the two astronauts have had to remain

on the ISS to maintain adequate staffing levels, and that it did

not have the budget or the operational need to send a dedicated

rescue spacecraft.

Having seen their mission turn into a normal NASA rotation

to the ISS, Wilmore and Williams have been doing scientific

research and conducting routine maintenance with the other

astronauts.

"UNUSUAL" MISSION PREPARATIONS

Williams told reporters earlier this month that she was

looking forward to returning home to see her two dogs and

family. "It's been a roller coaster for them, probably a little

bit more so than for us," she said.

Trump and Musk's demand for an earlier return for Wilmore

and Williams was an unusual intervention into NASA operations.

The agency later brought forward the Crew-10 mission from March

26, swapping a delayed SpaceX capsule for one that would be

ready sooner.

The pressure from Musk and Trump has hung over a NASA

preparation and safety process that normally follows a

well-defined course.

NASA's Commercial Crew Program manager, Steve Stich, said

preparing for the mission had been an "unusual flow in many

respects."

The agency had to address some "late-breaking" issues, NASA

space operations chief Ken Bowersox told reporters, including

investigating a fuel leak on a recent SpaceX Falcon 9 launch and

deterioration of a coating on some of the Dragon crew capsule's

thrusters.

Bowersox said it was hard for NASA to keep up with SpaceX:

"We're not quite as agile as they are, but we're working well

together."