SpaceX, Crew-10, Falcon 9, Dragon and NASA are ready for launch [Updated]

Update – SpaceX and NASA are now targeting Crew-10 launch for no earlier than 7:03 p.m. EDT Friday, March 14 to launch four crew members to Space Station. The launch attempt on March 12 was scrubbed due to hydraulic ground issue.

SpaceX has officially confirmed that the Falcon 9 rocket, Dragon spacecraft, the astronauts and NASA are ready to liftoff the Crew-10 mission from Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center, Florida for a flight no earlier than March 12.

Earlier today, SpaceX shared visuals of Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon pod moving to the launch pad to stand vertical and also announced Crew-10 rehearsal competition. This will be the 10th crew rotation mission between SpaceX and NASA and the 11th human spacecraft under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

The Crew-10 mission will take four astronauts to the International Space Station including NASA’s Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscomos cosmonaut Kiril Peskov.

After separation from Falcon 9’s second stage, the Dragon spacecraft will mark its journey to the Space Station’s forward-facing port of the Harmony module. Before that, SpaceX and NASA mission control teams will have to perform a series of maneuvers to take Dragon to the docking site.

NASA Crew-10 (Source – SpaceX)

Mission objective

The Crew-10 will conduct scientific research for human exploration in space for extensive missions. These astronauts will perform more than 200 experiments and technology tests during the course of their stay at the orbiting laboratory.

Rescue mission

Once docked, the Crew-10 will soon begin a short handover period of science and maintenance activities with the Crew-9 astronauts. Then, the stranded NASA astronaut Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore will undock the spacecraft from the space station with returning Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov to fly back to Earth.

Teams will review the weather conditions and splashdown site before undocking the crew from the Space Station.

(source)