SpaceX Crew-10 Mission Returns to Earth

Science & Technology Science

Posted by NewAdmin on 2025-03-21 09:04:33 |

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The tenth operational mission of SpaceX under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program was initially set for launch in February 2025. It was supposed to mark the maiden flight of Crew Dragon C213, the fifth and potentially final Crew Dragon spacecraft. However, the launch was postponed to late March 2025 to allow additional testing and integration. When NASA determined that C213 would not be ready until April, the mission was reassigned to Crew Dragon Endurance, enabling an earlier launch in March.

The first launch attempt on March 12, 2025, was called off approximately 44 minutes before liftoff. The delay was due to a suspected air pocket in the hydraulic system of a clamp on the strongback, which supports and stabilizes the Falcon 9 rocket during its vertical hold before launch.

The mission is set to conclude with a Pacific Ocean splashdown in late 2025, marking a return to this landing zone for Crew Dragon missions. While earlier Dragon 1 missions splashed down in the Pacific, recoveries were shifted to the Eastern U.S. in 2019 to expedite the return of astronauts and cargo to Kennedy Space Center. However, this shift resulted in some debris from the jettisoned trunk module reaching land. To prevent this issue, SpaceX is now directing the trunk module towards Point Nemo, a remote region of the ocean known as the "spacecraft cemetery," where surviving debris is unlikely to cause harm

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