After another delay, when can we expect astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore's return?

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Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore’s return from the ISS is delayed until March 19 due to weather conditions and a critical hydraulic system issue. Initially launched on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on June 5, 2024, their mission encountered multiple challenges, extending their stay. The delayed SpaceX Crew-10 mission to the ISS is now set for March 14.

Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore’s return to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) is delayed till March 19 after space agency Nasa announced that their return relies on the weather conditions at the splashdown sites off the coast of Florida.

Earlier on Wednesday, Nasa had announced another reason for the delay in the SpaceX Crew-10 mission to the ISS after engineers detected a critical hydraulic system issue less than four hours before the Falcon rocket’s scheduled evening launch.

After the postponement, the mission was rescheduled to a launch window of 7:03 pm on March 14.

The mission, which will carry four crew members to the ISS, was initially set to launch earlier but was postponed due to strong winds and heavy precipitation forecasted along the flight path of the Dragon spacecraft.

The two astronauts started their mission on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on June 5, 2024.

The stay was scheduled for 10 days only; however, due to a malfunction in the thruster on the spacecraft, their mission became even more complicated. Multiple missions have been attempted since, to no avail.

Remaining at Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida would be astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.

Crew-10 marks the 10th operational crew rotation mission under Nasa’s commercial crew program and the 11th crewed flight of SpaceX’s human space transportation system, including the Demo-2 test flight.

The mission also includes the launch of Transporter-13, a dedicated small satellite rideshare mission carrying 74 payloads.

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