SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endurance has arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, marking a crucial step toward the upcoming Crew-10 mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The capsule was transported overnight to the SpaceX hangar at Launch Complex 39A, where it will undergo final preparations before its scheduled launch aboard a Falcon 9 rocket on March 12.
The Crew-10 mission will carry NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA’s Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov to the ISS for a six-month rotation. Their arrival will facilitate a seamless transition with Crew-9, who are set to return to Earth shortly after Crew-10 docks with the station.
Originally, Crew-10 was slated to fly a newly manufactured Dragon spacecraft, but NASA reassigned the mission to Endurance due to delays in production and maintenance. The Endurance capsule is a veteran of three previous ISS missions—Crew-3, Crew-5, and Crew-7—demonstrating its reliability in spaceflight operations.
The launch is scheduled for 7:48 p.m. EDT (2348 GMT) on March 12, with docking expected approximately 14 hours later at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) on March 13. This timeline aligns with Crew-9’s anticipated return to Earth by the end of March, bringing home astronauts who have been stationed on the ISS since September 2024.
NASA will provide live coverage of the Crew-10 launch via its NASA+ streaming service, and SpaceX will also broadcast the event. The mission represents another milestone in SpaceX’s continued partnership with NASA, ensuring sustained human presence aboard the ISS.
source:https://www.space.com/space-exploration
