WASHINGTON
Four astronauts from NASA’s Crew-10 mission have departed the International Space Station (ISS) after completing a five-month stay, beginning their return journey to Earth aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule. The crew is scheduled to splash down off the coast of California on Saturday morning, marking the end of a 146-day mission focused on scientific research and station operations.
The departing crew includes NASA astronauts Nichole Ayers and Anne McClain — with McClain serving as mission commander — along with Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. The team boarded the gumdrop-shaped Dragon spacecraft on Friday afternoon for a planned 17.5-hour trip back to Earth.
Launched on March 14, Crew-10 replaced the outgoing Crew-9 astronauts, including NASA’s Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. The pair had been left aboard the ISS by Boeing’s Starliner capsule during its crew rotation mission. In a notable career update, Wilmore retired from NASA earlier this week after 25 years, having flown four different spacecraft and spending a total of 464 days in space. He was also a key technical adviser to Boeing’s Starliner program. Williams remains active in NASA’s astronaut corps.
During their mission, the Crew-10 astronauts oversaw and contributed to more than 200 experiments, many of them time-sensitive and designed to leverage the ISS’s unique microgravity environment. NASA stated that the returning Dragon capsule is carrying this valuable research back to Earth for further analysis.
Splashdown in the Pacific Ocean is targeted for 11:33 a.m. ET (1533 GMT) on Saturday, weather permitting. SpaceX recovery teams will be on standby to retrieve the crew and secure the spacecraft shortly after landing.
This mission continues the collaboration between NASA, SpaceX, and international space agencies in maintaining continuous human presence aboard the ISS while advancing research that could shape the future of long-duration space exploration.