SpaceX aborts its rescue mission for stranded astronauts at the last minute.
NASA astronauts Barry 'Butch' Wilmore and Sunita 'Suni' Williams have been on board the International Space Station (ISS) since last June on what was supposed to be a week-long mission.
The mission was set to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft at 7:48 p.m. EDT from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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A new group of 'Crew-10' astronauts were scheduled to arrive on the ISS by approximately 6am on Thursday and facilitate the pair's return to Earth.
However, less than an hour before it was due to blast off, NASA stood down the launch and Elon Musk's SpaceX made a last-minute announcement saying that it had aborted its plans.
This is reportedly due to an issue with the hydraulic system of the launch tower.
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SpaceX clarified that the problem wasn’t with the rocket or spacecraft itself, but rather a ground system issue.
The next launch is now scheduled for Friday (14 March).
SpaceX shared an update on their website regarding the postponed Crew-10 Mission: "SpaceX and NASA are targeting no earlier than Friday, March 14 for Falcon 9’s launch of Dragon’s 10th operational human spaceflight mission (Crew-10).
"Launch is targeted for 7:03 p.m. ET, with a backup opportunity available on Saturday, March 15 at 6:41 p.m. ET."
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Crew-10 is the tenth crew rotation mission of SpaceX’s human space transportation system, set to replace Crew-9 on the ISS and bring back Wilmore and Williams.
The international group on Crew-10 includes NASA’s Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, along with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos’ Kirill Peskov.
Once Crew-10 finally arrives at the ISS, they will spend several months familiarising themselves with the station's ongoing science and maintenance while Crew-9 prepares to return home, the space agency said.
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“The crew will spend several months aboard the orbiting laboratory conducting spacewalks, research demonstrations and experiments for the benefit of humanity and deep space exploration,” NASA explained.
Wilmore and Williams were originally part of Boeing’s first crewed test flight of its new Starliner capsule. However, technical issues forced the capsule to return to Earth without them last September - leaving them stranded nine months longer than expected.
Despite media narratives calling them 'stuck', both astronauts have maintained that they are not in distress and have been making the most of it.
"Of course, you know, we came up here thinking we'd be only here for a little while and do our test flight, but then the added time here has allowed us to do all the science experiments," Williams explained.
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"We've gone through a lot of holidays together. We've learned how to make cakes up here for each other. So it's been a lot of fun actually."
Meanwhile, both President Trump and his close ally Musk have repeatedly blamed the Biden administration for '[allowing it] to happen.'
Trump said earlier this month: “We love you, and we’re coming up to get you, and you shouldn’t have been up there so long."