Sunita Williams' Return To Earth Delayed As SpaceX Scrubs Crew-10 Launch Due To Technical Issue
The concerns over a critical hydraulic system arose less than four hours ahead of the Falcon rocket’s planned liftoff from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
Officials just informed about the cancellation during the launch countdown but did not confirm a new launch date for the Crew-10 mission. Providing an update on the mission's status, nasa said on X: "#Crew10 status: nasa and SpaceX are standing down on the march 12 launch attempt."
The SpaceX Crew-10 mission was scheduled to launch aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in florida at 7:48 PM EST on march 12 (5:18 AM IST, march 13). It was supposed to carry four Crew-10 astronauts including,NASA's Nichole Ayers and Anne McClain, japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov to the ISS.
The mission aims to replace the previous nasa Crew-9 including Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore, who have been stranded in space for nearly nine months after their trip on Boeing's Starliner encountered major breakdowns in transit last year in September.
Starliner’s debut crew flight was supposed to last a week, but due to the technical issues, nasa ordered the capsule to return empty. Williams and Wilmore were transferred to SpaceX for the return leg.
What Went Wrong During Crew-10 Launch
The concerns over a critical hydraulic system arose less than four hours ahead of the Falcon rocket’s planned liftoff from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.As the countdown neared liftoff, engineers examined the hydraulics that supported the release of one of the two arms securing the rocket to its support structure. This structure must tilt back right before liftoff.
Meanwhile, strapped into their capsule, the four astronauts awaited the final call. With less than an hour left, SpaceX took the final call—scrubbed for the day.
Although the company did not immediately announce a new launch date, it noted the next launch try could be as early as thursday night, theAssociated press reported.