Tech Desk 
Aug 09, 2025
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 members play cards with astronaut chief Joe Acaba at Kennedy Space Centre before their ISS launch. — SpaceX
SpaceX’s Crew-10 astronauts are set to return to Earth today after nearly five months aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
The Crew Dragon capsule, named Endurance, will splash down in the Pacific Ocean off California’s coast at 11:33am EDT (1533 GMT) on August 9. NASA will stream the event live from 10:15am EDT, giving space fans a chance to watch history unfold.
What is SpaceX Crew-10?
Crew-10 marks SpaceX’s 10th operational crew transportation to and from the ISS for NASA, under NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The crew consists of NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Kirill Peskov, who is a cosmonaut for Roscosmos. McClain was the mission commander, Ayers was the pilot, and Onishi and Peskov were mission specialists.
The mission launched from Kennedy Space Centre on March 14, 2023, aboard a Falcon 9 rocket and docked with the ISS two days later.
During the next several months, Crew-10 conducted important research in various domains, including research on how the human body is affected by prolonged space and how blood drains from the brain and returns to the heart in microgravity, and began work testing lunar landing site navigation. These are broad goals for NASA and are applied to research conducted for deep space exploration.
As the capsule begins its return to Earth, recovery teams stationed on the California coast await the capsule's splashdown and the safe return of the Crew-10 astronauts.
If the Crew-10 astronauts return safely, this mission will mark another important milestone for both SpaceX and NASA and demonstrate the capacity for commercial spacecraft to successfully operate for long-duration missions.
Where to watch SpaceX Crew-10 astronauts return to Earth?
