NASA, SpaceX Complete Dry Dress RehearsalSpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, with the Dragon spacecraft atop, is vertical at the launch pad of Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday, March 9, 2025, ahead of the agency's SpaceX Crew-10 launch to the International Space Station. Photo credit: SpaceX
Crew members of NASA's SpaceX Crew-10 mission are in the final stages of launch preparations after completing a dry dress rehearsal on March 9 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA astronauts Anne McClain, commander, and Nichole Ayers, pilot, along with mission specialists JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, spent the day donning spacesuits and completing air leak checks inside the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building. Once suited, the crew members boarded vehicles that drove them to Launch Complex 39A where they entered into the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft that will take them to the International Space Station.
SpaceX also conducted a static fire test of the Falcon 9 rocket after crew members departed the launch pad.
Crew-10 is scheduled to launch to the space station at 7:48 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, March 12, for a long-duration mission.
Upon arrival to the orbiting laboratory, NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 crew members will help familiarize the newly arrived crew with ongoing science and station maintenance work, which supports a safer transition of operations aboard the space station. Following a brief handover and pending weather conditions, Crew-9 NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, will board a SpaceX spacecraft and splashdown off the coast of Florida.
Commercial crew missions enable NASA to maximize use of the space station, where people have lived and worked continuously for more than 24 years testing technologies, performing research, and developing the skills needed to operate future commercial destinations in low Earth orbit and explore farther from Earth. Research conducted on the space station benefits people on Earth and paves the way for future long-duration trips to the Moon and beyond through NASA's Artemis campaign.
More details about the launch will be posted on the mission blog, @commercial_crew on X, or commercial crew on Facebook.
Stephanie Plucinsky
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