Washington: The path has been cleared for Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams to return to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS). As part of NASA and SpaceX’s Crew-10 mission, the Falcon 9 rocket carrying four astronauts successfully launched into space. According to Indian time, the Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon capsule lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in the U.S. at 4:33 AM on Saturday. Through this mission, astronauts McClain, Nicole Aunapu Mann, Takuya Onishi, and Kirill Peskov are heading to the ISS.

Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have been aboard the ISS for nearly nine months. To bring them back to Earth, NASA and SpaceX jointly launched the Crew-10 mission. Initially, the Falcon-9 rocket was scheduled to be launched three days ago, but a technical issue with the ground support clamp arm led to a last-minute cancellation. Now, with the successful launch, Sunita Williams is expected to return to Earth soon.

For the test mission, Williams and Wilmore traveled to space aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on June 5, 2024. They were supposed to return to Earth after eight days, but technical issues arose after the Starliner docked with the ISS. The propulsion system developed leaks, some thrusters failed, and helium supply depleted. By the end of August, NASA decided that bringing the astronauts back on the Starliner was unsafe. As a result, an uncrewed Starliner safely returned to Earth on September 7, 2024. Since then, Sunita Williams and Wilmore have remained at the space station.