What to know about NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission launching from Florida
Updated: 9:00 PM EDT Mar 9, 2025
Americans to Discovery clears the tower. Discovery. to be. It’s to get. Good evening, good evening everyone and welcome to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. I’m Reagan Scharfetter here in Florida, where NASA SpaceX crew 10 crew members are currently quarantining um in astronaut crew quarters ahead of their launch to the International Space Station. No earlier than Wednesday, March 12th. Joining us today virtually are Commander Anne McLean, pilot Nicole Ayers, JaxA astronaut Tikuya Onishi, and your cosmos cosmonaut uh Kariel Piskoff. Uh, while aboard the station, the crew is scheduled to conduct material flammability tests for future spacecraft designs, engage with students via ham radio, and use its existing hardware to test *** backup lunar navigation solution and participate in an integrated study to better understand. And physiological and psychological changes to the human body to provide valuable insights for future deep space missions. All said, I know our media partners are eager to speak with the crew, but before we jump into our Q&A, I first want to pass it over to Commander Anne McLean for some opening remarks. Well, good evening from the astronaut quarantine facility here at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Uh, the crew, uh, we arrived today from Johnson Space Center in Houston, um, and it’s really great to be down here. Um, we got to fly in along the coast of Florida and look at the launch pads, and, uh, we’re really looking forward to this mission and to talking to you about it this evening. Um, our crew of 4 people myself, Anne McLean, Nicole Ayres, Carl Peskov, and Takuya Anishi, uh, we all come from very different backgrounds, different space agencies. We’re excited to talk to you about our journeys, um, and just want to give *** little bit of *** background of this specific crew and our training to get to this point. Uh, we were each assigned to the Crew 10 mission somewhere around the early fall of 2023. So we have been training for about *** year and *** half for this specific mission to the International Space Station. I know that sometimes it can seem like launch dates move, and this one certainly has *** little bit, but the mission that we have to the International Space Station has been the driving force and what we have been training for. Uh, we are ready to go with, uh, with kind of whatever comes up over the next 6 months. Uh, Reagan, you mentioned some of the science experiments. We’re gonna have planned and unplanned maintenance, uh, to keep the space station running. Uh, we have *** plethora of science experiments both inside and outside of the space station. We have spacewalks, we have visiting vehicles which include robotics. We have the potential of getting private astronaut missions. And so all of this has been included in our preparation, and we’re ready to take your questions on on some of that preparation or anything else that you’d like to hear about. Now jump into our Q&A using our phone bridge, and for those of you on our phone bridge, please make sure to press 1 to jump into our question queue and 2 to take yourself back out. Um, and with that we are going to start with um Chris Siegel. They Jim Siegel, you may go ahead. Yes, thank you. Um, I’m interested in, uh, any particular, um, foods, uh, or other, uh, amenities that may, that each one of the astronauts, uh, were, uh, haven’t had uh uh received uh. in the in this in this particular mission, did they, did they request anything in particular and what would that have been? Thank you. Yeah I’ll take it. Um, yep, I, I’ll take that one. So, uh, we do get, uh, in addition to the standard menu, we get to, uh, choose some what we call crew selected menus. Uh, so we get to choose basically almost anything that’s from the grocery store that can be considered shelf stable. Uh, the food lab can then test it and either approve it. Or deny it based on microbial growth. So, uh, actually one of the things I’m looking forward to most, um, I found this little pack of, uh, hiking peanut butter, uh, on our recent trip, uh, to the Washington State to the Northwest. Um, it’s *** peanut butter with like espresso and chocolate in it, uh, and then I also had some chocolate chips approved, so I’m gonna take those chocolate chips, put them on the peanut butter on *** spoon, and twirl it around. Uh, it’s my niece and nephew’s favorite snacks, so I’m excited to share that with them. Anyone else I, I want to echo, I wanna echo what Nicole, just said. So from my previous experience of *** space flight, I found that uh food is really important to relieve our stress and also make our teams, um, bonded together more strongly. And so I’m bringing some Japanese food to be able to share with my crew members and also Uh, so that, uh, I can get some joy or relief from my like routine works on both the station. So please imagine when you go to uh like foreign countries, maybe for the first couple of days, you may look for something new food, but uh once you get used to *** new environment, you get tired from the new food and you might want to Some, uh, local food you get used to, you, you, you get used to, so, uh, the same thing happens in space. I missed Japanese food *** lot, so this time I’m bringing *** lot of Japanese food as ***, as my true personal uh food, so I’m really looking forward to enjoy those Japanese foods. All right, we will go to our next question, which will be Marcia Dunn. Um, good evening for Anne. You’ve surely been talking to butch and Sonny. What are they telling you? Are they pushing you to hurry up since they can’t leave until you get there? And are you taking any presents or surprises up for them to celebrate the end of their unexpectedly long mission? Yeah, thanks for the question, Marsha. We certainly talked to the Crew 9 astronauts more and more frequently as we get closer, you know, we’re about to be housemates here in *** few days. Their spirits are high, but I, you know, it’s important to point out that as the mission date was getting set, there was *** swath of of *** couple of months where it could have landed. And as crew members, we don’t get tied to any one date. Um, you know, one of my favorite sayings is you don’t really know your space destiny, uh, until it’s there. And so, um, they really are in good spirits, um, you know, of course they’re ready to come home and of course we’re ready to launch, but the most important thing is that we do both of those things safely. All of us take very serious our responsibility to be stewards of the International Space Station. Um, that is ***, um, national orbiting laboratory that is extremely significant for scientific development, for using it as *** proving ground for future deep space exploration, and we simply cannot leave it. Unde or under crude for any period of time, and that is first and foremost on all of our minds when we go is that level of responsibility and it’s certainly foremost on their minds. Honestly, I’m most looking forward to breaking bread with those guys, talking to them, giving them big hugs, you know we go way back. We’ve gone camping out in Wyoming with Sunny. Butch and I were office mates when we first got here, of course Nick and I are classmates, and we flew together last time. In fact. You know, he flew up right after I got there. We had to spend *** significant portion of our mission together and so of course everybody is ready to, like I said, we’re ready to go up there. They’re ready to come home, but we’re not overly tied to when that happens. We are really appreciative to our program managers NASA, SpaceX for making the decision based on technical readiness of the equipment. OK, next question goes to Gina Centri with ABC News. Uh, this question is for Anne. You know, you’re *** space station veteran. Did you make any promises to yourself when you left the last time that you would take something different or take different views when you got back? What did you decide you’d do differently? Yeah, that’s such an interesting question. I’d like to hear *** talks perspective on that too, um. My, my crewmate David Saint Jack said something that was really poignant on the very last day, uh, when we were there last, our last mission and Expedition 59. And he said, you know, one of us may be back to the space station, but of course it’s never *** promise, and if we come back it’s going to be different. It’s going to be *** different time. It’s going to be *** different mission. It’s going to be with *** different crew on *** different vehicle and we’re going to be different people, you know, in the years down the road. And that was so significant to me because I’m so looking forward to the space station, going back to the space station, but I’m very aware that the space station, it’s different, you know, it’s very modular inside. There’s different experiments. There’s different stowage. There’s, you know, there’s just different racks in each of the modules that we can go into. So physically it’s going to look different. The crew is going to be different, you know, we’ve worked together and trained together. It’s very different flying up on *** on *** US vehicle out of Florida. But you know, I think that the big thing that I reflected back on and what surprised me was what I remembered as the years went on that I found important. So I think what I’m trying to try to do this mission is really remember the important amidst the urgent. Everything is extremely important that we do every day when we get up there and sometimes you forget to step back and look at the people you’re sharing it with. You forget to step back and look out the window and, and really just take in the significance of of where you are, so. I think to answer your question directly on this mission, I’m going to really try to savor those little in between moments, maybe *** little more than I did last time. So during my first space flight, I worked very closely with uh my lead JaxA flight directors, and I thought uh that job was much more challenging than I initially thought. So I I thought I needed to get to know the, the other side of operations. So I decided to get qualified as *** JackA flight director, uh, post-flight, and I went through the training as *** flight control team members, and I finally got qualified and I worked with my colleagues of Jacka flight control teams. So now I can say I know the both sizes of ISS operations, so I believe I I can do *** better job for this time. So that’s something I really looking forward to for this time. All right, we’ll go and we’ll pass it on to Jonathan Serry with Fox. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us this evening. My question is for both NASA astronauts, in addition to being *** research mission, Crew 10 is also part of the process that will allow Butch and Sunny to return to Earth. I’d love to hear you share your thoughts on the duality of this mission or whether you approach it as you would any other space mission. Do that. Yeah, I think actually you might have said it best about kind of approaching it as any other mission. Um, you know how Butch and Sonny became members of Expedition 72 may have been different than how each of us were assigned to be members of Expedition 73, but the fact is they are members of Expedition 72, doing all of the same procedures, maintenance, and tasks that all of our crews do. Um, and so I think that we really look at it as *** very typical handover. During our handover period, we schedule very distinct activities for the outgoing and the incoming crews to hand over duties. They are, they are going to be some of the people that are training us in current space station operations in that handover, and I think it’s important to remember that space station has been, has been in low Earth orbit for about 25 years and continually crewed during that time. *** typical duration for *** space station mission is about 6 months, but just in the last 10 years we’ve had 5 US astronauts that have flown over 290 days. And so this, so that the duration that Butch and Sonny have been flying is *** little bit longer than our typical 6 months, but it’s also not on the higher end of what we’ve seen over the last 10 years. And so we’re looking forward to getting up there, but I think most of all it’s going to be *** very typical and nominal ISS handover. I, I would just echo what Anne said. I think that our ISS program manager said it great, uh, earlier this evening that we are prepared for almost anything here at NASA. That’s one of our strengths. We’re always ready for with *** backup plan. And so that backup plan turned into our primary plan where now Butch and Sonny have become part of Expedition 72 and really excited to high five them and get the handover from them and take the watch after they go home. All right, we’ll go to Will Robinson Smith with Space Flight now. Hi, thanks for taking the time to talk with us this evening. Question for Nicole. You’re the first member of your astronaut class of flies to head up into space. I wonder, you know, have you had *** chance to really talk with your classmates about that, and are you bringing anything up in honor of the fly’s first foray to the space station? Uh, thank you for the question. Um, you know, it’s an honor to represent my class and be the first one, but I think that all of us were ready at the same time and so it could have been any one of us that got picked, um, and so I’m honored and grateful to be the one, making the first step. Uh, I don’t want to ruin the surprise. I am flying something for all of them, but I don’t want to say it out loud, uh, at this moment, but I am doing some special things for the flies, um, and I’m just excited to share the experience with them, you know. There was nothing but love for me when I got announced for this mission, and there has been nothing but love and support from my from my crewmates and my classmates this entire time training. So it has been, like I said, *** true honor and pleasure training with this crew and getting to know all of them, but also continued support from my classmates and excited to high five them on orbit as well as we do handovers in the future. And we’ll pass it on to Miles Duran with CBS News. Hi, good evening. For Anne McLean. We heard your remarks at your arrival this afternoon. You spoke passionately and at length about the importance of the ISS and of having leaders of good character, and I wonder what what prompted the idea to talk about that today. Gosh, I think, you know, I’ve really been in awe of watching how in the last couple of months um our programs at NASA and the management at SpaceX have been working through some significant technical challenges and always coming out on top and it really struck me how. You know these missions are are not easy. They are so complex and it takes *** very large team of people who are doing work that at times is thankless, uh, you know, there are so many people whose names we don’t know who are absolutely the keys to successive in our mission. And I think that I have been very humbled by that. And so I think as I, as I flew down to as we flew down to Kennedy Space Center this afternoon, I was just thinking about that. I was thinking about the agency flight readiness review that was going on today. I was thinking about all of the technicians that have their hands on the rocket on the on the capsule right now, and there are so many people that are getting this ready. 4 pilots sitting here, our background are all pilots, we’re used to pre-flying our aircraft, you know, we go and we check every single system, every single, every single compartment on the aircraft. We’ll open up and look at. We look at the logbooks. We can’t do that on *** rocket or on *** capsule. We rely on other people to do that. So I think that’s what inspired my words was just kind of coming in with *** heart of gratitude for all the people that are really making this mission *** success. And we’ll go to Josh Dinner with Space.com. Hi, thank you. Speaking of checking every system, was the crew consulted or have any input in the decision to swap spacecraft, and how was that news received? Yeah, so those decisions are, are, are really made by our program management level, um, and I will say that our engineers and our program managers keep the astronaut office and uh and the flight operations directorate very well abreast of everything that is going on. We’re aware of all the technical issues, um, but we have an entire uh commercial crew program, uh, that is really the one that makes those decisions, um, and I can tell you that one of the things that I’ve reflected on is this. Strength of the NASA review and technical review processes, um, we look at firsthand data, we analyze it against our own standards, we define it. We have robust and sometimes heated conversations back and forth with people that may or may not agree, and I can tell you that I, I very much have faith in the answers that come out of those meetings. We have some extremely, extremely talented people working within NASA and in our commercial partners that are making those decisions. And we’ll go to Mikio Tanabi with NHK. Thank you for taking my question. This question is for Onishian. So this will be your 2nd time to stay at the International Space Station and you will become an ISS commander while you stay in the ISS. So can you please talk *** little bit about how you are going to play your important role as an ISS commander, how you will help every crew member accomplish their mission and handle an emergency situation, if it happens. Thank you. Hey, uh, thank you for the question. Uh, so, as you said, I will be the ISS commander for the first half portion of increment 73, uh, and I’m really looking forward to that new role. And basically, the duties and responsibilities of the ISS commander is, first of all, to make sure. That all crew members are safe and also the International Space Station is also safe. So that’s my ultimate goal as the ISS commander and based on my experience that we went through. As some emergency training together in uh Houston or in Moscow. I have already built like *** strong uh trust and also confidence in my crewmates because they are so capable and we are all pilots, so we are so used to Like *** quickly response to uh some uh emerging situations and following procedures, and even if the situation deviates from our standard procedures, I, I already saw *** couple of times that each crew member responded to that new situation, then uh kind of swapping their roles independently, so I’m super confident in my crewmates, and so should be. Everything should be uh good for us. Then, uh, as the commander, I want to make sure that everybody is happy with uh my uh decisions. So I try, I will try to make sure that, uh, I listen to, uh, everybody’s opinions to before I make any decisions, and also I’m always be uh open to any feedback from you guys. So thank you very much. And we’ll pass it to Paige Reynolds with KRDOTB. Hi, congratulations to you all. My question for Nicole. Can you just describe how your upbringing in Colorado Springs and Woodland Park, both schooling and the community, has guided you to get where you’re at today? Uh yeah, thank you for the question. I love to highlight, uh, Colorado. It’s one of my favorite places. I grew up there, um, you know, as *** child I always had an affinity for the sky and flying and for space, um, and then growing up right there in Colorado next to the Air Force Academy during the shuttle era when I learned you could fly the shuttle, I was like, oh, so that’s what I wanna do. I wanna be *** pilot in the Air Force and the Air Force Academy right there with the Thunderbirds flying over every year was just *** natural decision for me. Uh, but one of my favorite parts about growing up in Colorado is the exploring and the ability to go hiking and camping and kind of figuring out how to live in austere places which has turned out to be *** great analog for what we’re training to do here and now. And then, uh, you know, I grew up, I went to middle school in Colorado Springs and then high school in Woodland Park, um, and was able to learn *** ton about math. That’s kind of my favorite subject. I’m *** little bit of *** nerd. I was *** math major in college and, uh, my master’s degree is in math as well. So just growing up in that environment and then also the schooling where I was able to really excel and advance in math and get to the Air Force Academy. Uh, and then played sports my whole time there as well, so, uh, plenty of opportunities in Colorado both outside and inside the school system, and it really set me up for success, uh, to get where I am today. Right, and we’ll go to Austin Sack with KXRMTV. Yes, hello. I wish you all the best on your mission. This question is also for Nicole, kind of similar, you know, your ties to Colorado, but I was hoping you could expand and share as much as you can about the level of training that you had to go through to make it to this point. Obviously being in the Air Force Academy, you went through similar training or somewhat similar to. So what was maybe the difficult part of training to be an astronaut and if you had *** tip for any younger community members growing up who have dreams to follow your shoes one day. Uh, sure, yeah, that is *** wonderful question. Um, you know, going to the Air Force Academy, it’s *** military academy, obviously, so you go through basic training and then went through *** lot of different programs while I was there. I then went on to get *** master’s degree and went on to pilot training. Uh, and then I learned how to fly the T-38, and then I learned how to fly the F-22. So each of those are formal courses, uh, for the Air Force. And then I came here and started the formal course, uh, the initial training for us, uh, as an ASCAN, so two years of initial training followed by *** year to *** year and *** half of training for this mission. So, uh, I like to say that I’ve been, uh, just living in *** training environment for most of my career, but I’ve learned *** ton, uh, and I’m excited to go execute this mission. Um, and I think that what I would say is that one of the most challenging parts of our training here in ASCANN training is the neutral buoyancy lab and learning how to do *** spacewalk. You know, as *** F-22 pilot, we were kind of on the operational tip of the spear. In the military and now we got to go do things that are on the operational tip of the spear for humanity and go out into the vacuum of space in *** spacesuit that is basically like *** small spacecraft and so it’s just you and your buddy out there and you’re working to fix something that broke on the space station and if you run into *** problem, it’s on you guys to work with the ground team to come up with *** good game plan to fix it and so it was one of the most challenging and rewarding parts of the training here at NASA. And then the thing that I would say to everybody that I always say to everybody and all the little kids out there is, you know, find something you’re passionate about. I mentioned I love math. That took me pretty far in academics and I loved flying and so find something you’re passionate about, go work really hard at it, get good at it, and then surround yourself with good people because you’re probably going to be on *** team somewhere. So I always say be *** good teammate, be *** good human, and work hard and you’ll get anywhere you want in life. OK. Next question comes from Pablo Fuente. I thank you for doing this. My question is for Ann. It is my understanding that the handover is going to last 2 days instead of 5. Considering that you have rookies on this flight. Do you guys did some prework on there um to be able to work through that process efficiently. Thank you. Yeah, that’s *** great question on the handover. I appreciate that. And of course, as was mentioned in the mission management press conference right before us, it will be potentially *** shorter handover. So first, I want to say something about the capabilities of our first time flyers, and that is if these first time flyers, if nobody was on the space station and we weren’t with them, they could absolutely go up and do the space station mission. Would it take *** few more calls. To the ground, yes, would some mistakes be made maybe here and there, but I will tell you that efficiency is what we’re really going after or during this handover period, because time is money on space station astronaut crew time is expensive, and we want to be as efficient as possible, as quickly as possible. And so the question for handover, it’s not one of safety, it’s not one of mission accomplishment, it’s how efficient can we get. So space station does change around on the inside *** little bit and so even Takuya and I, the veterans of the space station, we’re going to need to go in and see kind of how they’re doing things right now and make sure we can fall into the mission in that way. But it’s also important to remember we have another crew member up there, Don Pettit is our Soyuz crew member, and they are not doing *** handover until April. So even though Crew 9 will return, we will have somebody that has been up there since last fall that can show us the ropes and show us any gaps in our knowledge, and we certainly have enough time with Crew 9, with Nick Haig in particular to get *** really good dragon docked operation handover. So I don’t think the shortened handover is going to be any problem and certainly everybody on the crew is ready to execute. All right, next question comes from Robert Pearlman with CollectSpace. Thank you. Two questions about symbols for your mission to any crew member that’s appropriate. First, NASA made note that you designed your mission patch first by using AI. Can you describe that process? What prompts did you give it? And second, until you swap capsules, I think you’re in *** position to name SpaceX’s new dragon. Did you pick out *** name already and do you know if that name will stick or does that now fall to its next crew? Uh, I’ll take the first part of that question. So I was one of the masterminds behind the patch here, um, and you know, as I sat down to try to think of, I’m not an artist, uh, I said I’m *** mathematician. So, uh, as I sat down to try to think of what our crew, who our crew is and what we want to represent, um, you know, this day and age, AI is *** really cool tool that we get to use to kind of help us brainstorm things and so my husband and I sat down and we just started typing out things in an AI image generator and. Eventually came up with *** few ideas that I liked, pulled from those, and then sat down with an artist and really discussed the vision for the patch, which is in the rest of that patch description, you know, we wanted to highlight the fact that all four of us are professionally trained pilots, which is why the wings are featured on the patch and then the ascending and descending trajectory in the form of *** Roman numeral X for Crew 10. There’s 10 sides to the patch. There’s all sorts of meaning. In the patch, um, and so it was just kind of *** booster for the brainstorm which then kick started uh our discussions as *** crew on what we wanted in the patch and then sat down with an artist and our artist took what I said to him, ran with it, and came out with this amazing and beautiful patch that we’re all very proud of. Amazing. Oh, sorry, Anne, were you gonna finish there? Yeah, just to get the second half of that question, um, it has become kind of *** tradition that the first crew to fly on *** spacecraft gets to name it. So yes, we had thought about it, um, but maybe even more significantly, we had been lobbied by many different people who had ideas for us, um, would like to recognize our excellent flight director Alison and her Athena flight flight control team. Um, she was really got in for that name. We’re not going to share what we would have named the capsule, but we have told the next couple of crews that may potentially fly it. We are now the lobbyists lobbying them to name it, give it our name, so TBD. All right, we’ll go over to Nicholas Gibson with Action News. Hi there. This is Nick Gibson with the spokesman Review. Sorry about that. Anne and Sakuya, this will be *** return trip for you, so I’m curious what perspectives or life lessons stayed with you from your last stance. And for Kari and Nicole, how do you think this experience might change you? Thank you. So in addition to my experience as *** Jacka flight director, uh, So, I flew to the International Space Station in 2016, so it’s been already 9 years, and since then, I’m sure there, there, there are *** lot of like uh progresses in uh our operations, operational systems as well as our research. So I really want to see those progresses in our operations and research. I think one of the lessons that I took from last time was kind of the level of technical proficiency that you have to operate in every single day, but at the same time, how much you rely on your crew members. As soon as our crew was named, I think I flashed back to my last flight and remembered how the crew that I flew with, they are, they are my brothers and sisters, you know, I still get *** huge smile on my face every time I see them in the hallway and I realize you know, these are the people that I’m going to build that same relationship with while we all get to one live out *** dream, and two, we get to be operators on this amazing equipment, both flying up there on *** SpaceX Dragon and being part of the space station crew. So I think I’m just really humbled by the magnitude of the experience. Well, answering my part of the question, I think it’s hard to predict how this flight will change me, but I’m sure that I will get *** wonderful experience and *** lot of experience that I’ll be able to apply in the future missions and Uh, hopefully we’ll have some future projects together and build some more science. I think for me I’m I’m excited about the view, uh, getting to see the world from that perspective, um, but I’ve talked *** lot about teams this evening and I’m excited to share the experience with this team, but also to see the team that we are on the on the ground, you know, there are no borders. You can’t see borders from the space station, so I’m excited to see how all of us individuals form into one world, while we’re up there. OK, next question is from Jackie Gardner with the Times. Hello, thank you. Um, and you said earlier when you arrived that you rely on the media to be telling your stories, and there’s been quite *** story woven around your mission. So after you’ve rescued Butch and Sonny, for each of you, what is the activity or project or experiment that you’re most looking forward to that will define your part in the space station story? Thank you. Um, I think for me I’m, I’m most excited about all of the human science that I that I volunteered for. Um, you know, we don’t get to learn anything about the human body in space unless an astronaut has volunteered for that experiment, and so I’m most excited to, you know, donate my, my body to science and, um, you know, I, I’m involved in *** cartilage, uh, study, *** bone study, uh, an eye study, so all sorts of different things, um, that we’re going to learn just from living in space for *** long duration. And you know I’m excited to see how we use all of those experiments to then get onto the moon and on to Mars and how we use that and extrapolate that data into longer duration missions as we continue to explore further outside of our atmosphere and and and onto the universe. I think one of the things I’m looking forward to is seeing the advancement in technology and science since the last flight. Um, you know, it’s, it’s easy to say space station has been flying for 25 years. It benefits everybody on Earth, but when you are living it year to year to year, you see these like logarithmic leaps in our ability to do science on the space station, and every single year that space station flies, there is more benefit to everybody on Earth. One of those that I’m looking forward to is our protein crystal growth experiments that we are running on Space Station. It is *** similar type of experiment, but it’s being run in *** completely different manner now than it was 5 years ago. 5 years ago we were seeing could we grow crystals on space station, and now we’re saying, wow, we can grow crystals on space station. How can we maximize these to better cancer research, the Parkinson’s research. Cancer immunotherapy drugs. 10 years ago, if, if you were doing, if you got cancer, the robust benefits of immunotherapy and Keytruda were not as known as they are now. The rate at which we were able to learn about those was significantly increased on space station. So I think what I’m looking really forward to is kind of comparing how we do things now to what we did 5 years ago and then being part of one of those breakthrough experiments that is going to happen in 2025, and we’re going to find out what that is when we’re there. So, uh, one of the experiments I’m really looking forward to is called ELF ELF, that means, uh, electrostatic levitation fur. So instead of, uh, building *** furnace with *** thick metal walls on the ground, we use, uh, electrostatic force to levitate the sample and uh also control its position, and we use the lasers to heat it up to 3000 °C. And to understand how uh the material samples behaves at such *** high temperatures, such as uh viscosity and self extension and so on. We can use the same technology on the ground, but uh the range of materials we can levitate is very limited on the ground because of the existence of the gravity. So that’s why we do this experiment in space, then uh The reason why I’m really looking forward to this experiment is in 2016, I worked on the initial checkout of this experiment device, and it has, we have been going through *** lot of technical challenges with this device initially. Uh, because it was so difficult and challenging than we thought initially to precisely control the tiny, tiny piece of uh sample using uh electrostatic force, but we made some adjustment to our software and also uh we made some uh adjustment or developed *** new piece of hardware for our uh for modification. Then now it, it became *** super active, one of the most active experiment uh machines working on the, working in the Japanese experiment module right now, so I, I can’t wait uh working on that experiment device again. Our next question comes from Yussuke Tomiyama. Hi, thank you for taking my question. I have two quick questions for Mr. Oishi. I remember that you clearly stated your ambition to land on the moon shortly after the US-Japan agreement to send Japanese astronauts to the moon. I’d like to ask you again about your current thoughts and motivations on future lunar mission. The second question is that over the decade, you have been one of the youngest astronauts in Jackson since you are selected as an astronaut candidate in 2009. Now two new astronauts joined Jackson. Are there any changes in your mind after having junior colleagues astronauts? Thank you. Uh, thank you for the question. So, yeah, as *** As an astronaut, of course, I want to go to the moon if I get *** chance, but I’m sure everybody wants to do the same thing, then everybody is also trying to do their best to achieve the goal. So I think it is important to try to always do my best in any situation that I was, I’m given. So, Yeah, of course, I’m, I always dream about going to the moon, but uh right now, I just focus on my current mission, this ISS expedition 72, 73, and by uh achieving uh by showing our team’s capabilities throughout the mission could lead up to uh achieving my childish dream in the future. So, That’s my goal for now. And uh as you mentioned, that we have now two new ASEANs uh in Jack, and they are already uh my good friends, so I know they are so capable and also they are still young, much younger, young, one of, one of them is much younger than me, so I guess uh she has much more chances than I because uh I’m getting old and I don’t know how much time I have left in order to uh make my dream come true, so, uh, I wish them uh best luck in their future explorations and also their first future space missions as well. All right, next question goes to Sergei Umatov. Uh, hi, everyone. My question is actually for Kiri. Uhill, how you feeling ahead of your, uh, first space flight, uh, and have you received any tips for your cosmos colleagues who have already flown on *** Crew Dragon spacecraft? I. Um, Yep, I got *** couple. All right, um, I think that we’ll go ahead and conclude today’s crew news conference. Again, I want to extend *** huge thank you to our crew as well as all of our media partners who have dialed in today, um, and for every one of you who tuned in today using NASA Plus. Coverage of Crew 10 launch begins at 3:45 p.m. Eastern with launch at 7:48 p.m. Eastern. Um, and with that, go Crew 10, go NASA, and we’ll see you next time.
What to know about NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission launching from Florida
Updated: 9:00 PM EDT Mar 9, 2025
Video above: NASA gives update on Crew-10 missionFour astronauts are set to launch from Florida as they embark on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission to the International Space Station. The launch is expected to liftoff at 7:48 p.m. on Wednesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The arrival of Crew-10 at the ISS will pave the way for Crew-9’s return to Earth, including NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been stuck in space since June 2024.Their return to Earth was delayed due to safety concerns regarding the Boeing Starliner capsule they used for their journey.Officials reported the capsule had helium leaks and thruster problems.As the countdown to Wednesday’s launch approaches, the Crew-10 members took the opportunity to sit down and discuss the upcoming mission. Watch below:About the missionNASA said the crew will conduct more than 200 experiments during their mission.One of the most prominent experiments includes material flammability tests. This will help “contribute to future spacecraft and facility designs,” according to NASA.The crew is also expected to communicate with students worldwide via ham radio and use its current hardware to test a “backup lunar navigation system.” NASA also said the astronauts will act as test subjects, with one crew member leading a study to understand how space affects the body and mind. This research will help prepare for future deep-space missions. About the crewThe mission will feature NASA astronauts Anne McClain, the commander, and Nichole Ayers, the pilot.They will be joined by Takuya Onishi, a mission specialist from Japan, and Kirill Peskov, a cosmonaut from Russia.WESH 2 will stream the launch in the video player above.
Video above: NASA gives update on Crew-10 mission
Four astronauts are set to launch from Florida as they embark on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission to the International Space Station.
The launch is expected to liftoff at 7:48 p.m. on Wednesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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The arrival of Crew-10 at the ISS will pave the way for Crew-9’s return to Earth, including NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been stuck in space since June 2024.
Their return to Earth was delayed due to safety concerns regarding the Boeing Starliner capsule they used for their journey.
Officials reported the capsule had helium leaks and thruster problems.
As the countdown to Wednesday’s launch approaches, the Crew-10 members took the opportunity to sit down and discuss the upcoming mission. Watch below:
About the mission
NASA said the crew will conduct more than 200 experiments during their mission.
One of the most prominent experiments includes material flammability tests. This will help “contribute to future spacecraft and facility designs,” according to NASA.
The crew is also expected to communicate with students worldwide via ham radio and use its current hardware to test a “backup lunar navigation system.”
NASA also said the astronauts will act as test subjects, with one crew member leading a study to understand how space affects the body and mind.
This research will help prepare for future deep-space missions.
About the crew
The mission will feature NASA astronauts Anne McClain, the commander, and Nichole Ayers, the pilot.
They will be joined by Takuya Onishi, a mission specialist from Japan, and Kirill Peskov, a cosmonaut from Russia.
WESH 2 will stream the launch in the video player above.