Week after SpaceX explosion, Crew-10 Dragon launch this week; how to watch in New Jersey
NASA's SpaceX crew is preparing to launch Wednesday to the International Space Station, where their Dragon capsule will provide a ride home for a pair of astronauts whose homecoming after an unexpected marathon mission has been long-awaited.
The SpaceX crew of four, who arrived at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, are set to lift off in a Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon endurance capsule, which was raised on its launch pad on Merritt Island, off the east coast of Florida early Sunday morning, according to Florida Today.
By late Sunday, the crew had completed a full rehearsal, and a static fire of the rocket was a success, according to posts on the X page for SpaceX.
Wednesday's launch comes amid a flurry of incidents afflicting SpaceX rockets, with the latest on March 6, when a SpaceX Starship rocket exploded in a fiery spectacle over Florida skies during its eighth flight test. Weeks earlier, the Starship's seventh test flight, each unmanned, exploded over the skies of Turks & Caicos.
In a rare accident on March 2, SpaceX's Falcon 9, during a routine Starlink mission, caught fire upon landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
Just over a week removed, SpaceX is planning to launch the Starlink 12-21 tonight, Monday, March 10, from Florida's Space Coast around 11:21 p.m., although that could be delayed into early Tuesday morning, according to Florida Today. This rocket will not be heard even from Florida, aside from a few rumbles from its engines, since it will be traveling southeast toward a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
Here's what to know about the manned Crew-10 launch Wednesday, how it'll finally relieve a stranded crew at the ISS, and whether you will be able to see it from New Jersey.
A four-member team of spacefarers, called Crew-10. are expected to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon Endurance capsule on Wednesday. They will head to the International Space Station to relieve Crew-9 -- which includes Suni Williams and Butch Witmore, who will finally return home after an unexpected lengthy stay in space. News and speculation over Williams' and Witmore's time in space have generated a lot of buzz, and input from President Donald Trump, but the hope is they will return as soon as Crew-10 arrives, NASA said last week.
Aboard Crew-10 is NASA astronaut Anne McClain (crew commander), a U.S. Army colonel and helicopter pilot; fellow NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers (pilot) a U.S. Air Force major and F-22 stealth pilot; Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi (mission specialist); and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov (mission specialist).
SpaceX Falon 9 rocket and Dragon Endurance, its 10th human spaceflight mission, is targeted to launch on Wednesday, March 12, from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, off the east coast of Florida. A backup date is scheduled for Thursday.
Crew-10 is scheduled to lift off at 7:48 p.m. on Wednesday, March 12, according to SpaceX.
The crew will soar into low-Earth orbit in the Dragon Endurance capsule -- which was previously used for Crew-3, Crew-5 and Crew-7 missions -- then dock at the ISS around 10 a.m. on Thursday.
Many factors could contribute to the chance of seeing a SpaceX rocket launch in New Jersey, such as cloud cover, launch time and trajectory. However, it's not unheard of to see it from the Garden State. In February, some New Jersey residents said they saw the Falcon 9 rocket lift off from Cape Canaveral. A SpaceX rocket was also spotted by some keen skywatchers in New Jersey last summer.
SpaceX will stream live the Crew-10 mission about an hour and 20 minutes prior to liftoff -- so around 6:28 p.m. on Wednesday. You can watch it on the SpaceX website, on their SpaceX official X page or on the new X TV app.
Lori Comstock is a New Jersey-based journalist with the Mid-Atlantic Connect Team.