Due to unforeseen delays, NASA and SpaceX have made a significant adjustment to their spaceflight plans. To avoid further postponements in launching Crew-10 to the International Space Station (ISS), they will utilize the Endurance Crew Dragon capsule instead of a new spacecraft. Endurance, a veteran of multiple missions, was originally allocated for the Axiom Space Ax-4 private astronaut mission. This decision, announced February 11, directly addresses delays in completing the new capsule.
“Human spaceflight is full of unexpected challenges,” Steve Stich, NASA commercial crew program manager, explained. “We greatly benefit from SpaceX’s commercial efforts and their proactive approach in having another spacecraft ready for us to assess and use in support of Crew-10.” The change accelerates the launch of Crew-10, now targeted for no earlier than March 12, and the return of the Crew-9 capsule. Originally, a February launch was planned, but a December 17 announcement postponed it to late March due to delays in the new Crew Dragon's assembly and testing.
Crew-9's return will follow shortly after Crew-10's arrival, bringing home NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos’ Aleksandr Gorbunov, along with NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore. Williams and Wilmore's extended stay on the ISS became a political point of contention after Elon Musk's social media post. The subsequent statement from NASA clarified that they are working to return the astronauts safely.
Williams, in a CBS News interview, refuted claims of feeling abandoned, stating, “I don’t think I’m abandoned. I don’t think we’re stuck up here. We’ve got food. We’ve got clothes. We have a ride home in case anything really bad does happen to the International Space Station.” The capsule swap doesn’t alter the Crew-10 crew: Anne McClain (commander), Nichole Ayers (pilot), Takuya Onishi (JAXA), and Kirill Peskov (Roscosmos). The impact on the Ax-4 mission's schedule remains unclear.