NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore are set to return to Earth after an extended nine-month mission aboard the ISS, facilitated by the successful launch of SpaceX Crew-10. Originally part of a shorter Boeing Starliner test flight,

The team, which includes NASA's Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan's Takuya Onishi, and Russia's Kirill Peskov, took off from Kennedy Space Center in a SpaceX capsule early this morning. They will arrive at the ISS tomorrow. This mission will pave the way for astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams's return after a nine-month stay in space.

The Crew-10 mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket occurred at 7:03 pm EDT (Saturday, 4:33 am IST) from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.