NASA SpaceX Crew-10 mission: Meet the four astronauts who are replacing Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore at ISS

SpaceX and NASA have sent a new crew to the International Space Station to replace Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, where they have been stranded for nine months. The lift-off took place at 7:03 ET last Friday, with a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon spacecraft for the Crew-10 mission.

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov docked with International Space Station on Sunday.

In a statement, NASA stated, "NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, as the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft docked to the orbiting complex at 12:04 a.m. EDT, while the station was roughly 260 statute miles over the Atlantic Ocean."


Crew-10 will join the Expedition 72 crew of NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Don Petitt, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore and Roscosmos cosmonauts Aleksandr Gorbunov, Alexey Ovchinin, and Ivan Vagner, according to the statement released by NASA. The number of crew aboard the space station will rise to 11 people before Crew-9 members Hague, Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore, and Gorbunov return to Earth after the crew handover period.

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NASA's SpaceX Crew-10 mission to ISS

The four astronauts of the Crew-10 mission will conduct scientific research, test new technologies, and perform maintenance aboard the orbiting laboratory. This mission marks the 10th crew rotation to the ISS with SpaceX and the 11th human spaceflight under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

The Crew-10 includes NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, along with Takuya Onishi from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Kirill Peskov from Roscosmos.

Let's meet the Crew-10 quartet, who represent three different nations:

-Anne McClain: Born and raised in Washington, Anne McClain was selected by NASA in 2013. A colonel in the US Army, Anne McClain is a Master Army Aviator with more than 2,000 flight hours in 20 different aircraft. She is currently training for her second spaceflight where she will serve as commander of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission.

McClain was selected in June 2013 as one of eight members of the 21st NASA astronaut class. Her candidate training included scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in International Space Station systems, spacewalks, robotics, physiological training, T-38 flight training, and water and wilderness survival training. She completed astronaut candidate training in July 2015.

McClain most recently served as flight engineer on the International Space Station for Expedition 58 and 59. She is an Instructor Astronaut for Robotics, EVA, and CAPCOM. In addition, McClain has served in a variety of other jobs, including branch chief and International Space Station Assistant to the Chief within NASA’s Astronaut Office.

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-Nichole 'Vapor' Ayers: Nichole Ayers was selected by NASA to join the 2021 Astronaut Candidate Class. She reported for duty in January 2022. The Colorado native graduated from the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics.

Ayers graduated from the US Air Force Academy in 2011. She became an instructor pilot in the T-38, leading adversary missions that provided combat training for the F-22 Raptors at Langley AFB, Virginia. Ayers graduated from the F-22 Basic Course in 2018 and also became an instructor pilot in the F-22. She flew over 200 combat hours in Operation Inherent Resolve over Iraq and Syria. Ayers has over 1,400 total flight hours in the T-38A/B/C/N and F-22 Raptor. At the time of her selection as a NASA astronaut candidate, she was the assistant director of operations in the 90th Fighter Squadron at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska.

Ayers was selected as a NASA astronaut candidate in December 2021 and reported for duty in January 2022 to complete two years of initial astronaut training. She is currently training for her first spaceflight where she will serve as pilot of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission.

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-Takuya Onishi: Takuya Onishi, an astronaut with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), serves as a mission specialist for Crew-10. In 2016, he was a flight engineer for Expeditions 48 and 49, spending 113 days in space. During this mission, Onishi became the first Japanese astronaut to capture the private Cygnus cargo spacecraft, according to NASA.

Onishi holds a degree in aeronautics and astronautics from the University of Tokyo. Before joining JAXA, he worked as a pilot for All Nippon Airways, accumulating over 3,700 flight hours on the Boeing 767. In addition to his work on the International Space Station (ISS), he also participated in NASA's 15th Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) mission, where astronauts, engineers, and scientists live and work in Aquarius, an underwater research station, according to his JAXA bio.

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-Kirill Peskov: Kirill Peskova is a cosmonaut with the Russian space agency Roscosmos, serves as the second mission specialist for Crew-10. This marks his first spaceflight. According to NASA, Peskov holds an engineering degree from the Ulyanovsk Civil Aviation School in Ulyanovsk, Russia.

Prior to becoming a test cosmonaut in 2020, Peskov worked as a co-pilot for Russian airlines Nordwind and Ikar, operating Boeing 757 and 767 aircraft. His additional training includes skydiving, zero-gravity simulations, scuba diving, and wilderness survival.