A SpaceX capsule successfully delivered four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) early Sunday as part of NASA’s crew swap mission, allowing veteran astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to finally return to Earth after being stranded for nine months.
The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7:03 p.m. ET on Friday, and after approximately 29 hours of travel, it docked with the ISS at 12:04 a.m. ET on Sunday. The new Crew-10 astronauts were greeted by the station’s seven-member crew, including Wilmore and Williams, both retired Navy test pilots and veteran NASA astronauts. They had been on the station since last year, after issues with Boeing’s Starliner capsule led to the return of an empty spacecraft.
The Crew-10 mission, while a routine crew rotation, is especially significant as it will allow Wilmore and Williams to return to Earth—a mission that had been delayed by complications with the Starliner. This crew swap plan, initiated by NASA last year, gained urgency after President Donald Trump took office in January and pushed for a quicker resolution.
Wilmore and Williams are scheduled to depart the ISS on Wednesday, as early as 4 a.m. ET, alongside NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. Hague and Gorbunov had arrived at the ISS in September aboard a Crew Dragon capsule, which had two empty seats reserved for Wilmore and Williams.
The Crew-10 team, set to remain on the ISS for approximately six months, includes NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.
The mission became politically charged as President Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, a close adviser to the president, called for a faster Crew-10 launch. They speculated, without evidence, that Wilmore and Williams had been left on the ISS for political reasons by Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden.
In the meantime, Wilmore and Williams have continued their work on the ISS, participating in scientific research and routine maintenance with the other astronauts. Williams shared her anticipation of returning home, saying she was excited to reunite with her family and two dogs. “It’s been a roller coaster for them, probably a little bit more so than for us,” she said.
