Crew-10 Mission Concludes with Pacific Splashdown as Launch Delays Impact Kuiper Project

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying the Crew-10 astronauts safely returned to Earth on Saturday, executing a controlled splashdown in the Pacific Ocean near California’s coastline. NASA’s acting Administrator, Sean Duffy, confirmed the mission’s successful completion, signifying the culmination of the agency’s tenth commercial crew rotation to the International Space Station.

The team—comprising NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov—had been stationed aboard the ISS since their launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 14th. Following a two-day journey, they successfully docked with the orbital outpost. During their extended stay, the crew undertook a broad range of scientific investigations, encompassing research into plant development within microgravity environments and assessing the impact of space radiation on DNA samples. The mission encompassed 2,368 orbits around Earth, covering an estimated distance of 62.8 million miles.

While in orbit, McClain and Ayers ventured outside the station to conduct a spacewalk, during which they installed a new communications antenna and initiated preparations for planned upgrades to the station’s solar arrays. Following their return, the astronauts are scheduled to be transported to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston where they will undergo assessments before being reunited with their families.

Separately, a Falcon 9 launch intended to deploy Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites has been postponed due to adverse weather conditions at Cape Canaveral. This marks the third delay for the mission aimed at establishing a global internet constellation. SpaceX is currently targeting an attempt at launch tomorrow at 8:57 a.m.