عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Varieties

NASA, SpaceX Delay Flight that Was to Retrieve Stuck Astronauts

The NASA SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket, that will carry the NASA's Crew-10, is docked after the launch was scrubbed at the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Titusville, Florida, USA, 12 March 2025. EPA/CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH
The NASA SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket, that will carry the NASA's Crew-10, is docked after the launch was scrubbed at the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Titusville, Florida, USA, 12 March 2025. EPA/CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH
TT
20
TT

NASA, SpaceX Delay Flight that Was to Retrieve Stuck Astronauts

The NASA SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket, that will carry the NASA's Crew-10, is docked after the launch was scrubbed at the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Titusville, Florida, USA, 12 March 2025. EPA/CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH
The NASA SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket, that will carry the NASA's Crew-10, is docked after the launch was scrubbed at the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Titusville, Florida, USA, 12 March 2025. EPA/CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH

NASA and SpaceX on Wednesday delayed the launch of a replacement crew of four astronauts to the International Space Station that would have set in motion the long-awaited homecoming of US astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.
NASA had been set to launch a SpaceX rocket from Florida carrying a replacement crew for the International Space Station in a mission that would set up the return to Earth of Wilmore and Williams - stuck in space for nine months after a trip on Boeing's faulty Starliner.
The launch was called off due to a hydraulic system issue with a ground support clamp arm for the Falcon 9 rocket, Reuters quoted NASA as saying in a statement.
Launch teams are working to address the issue, it said in another statement.
NASA said it is now targeting a launch no earlier than 7:03 p.m. EDT (2303 GMT) Friday after mission managers put off a launch attempt on Thursday because of high winds and rain forecast in the flight path of Dragon.
With a Friday Crew-10 launch, the Crew-9 mission with astronauts Wilmore and Williams would depart the space station on Wednesday, March 19, it said.
The US space agency had moved up the mission by two weeks after President Donald Trump and his adviser Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, called for Wilmore and Williams to be brought back earlier than NASA had planned.
A planned eight-day stay on the orbiting station has dragged on for Wilmore and Williams, both veteran astronauts and US Navy test pilots. Starliner returned to Earth without them last year.
SpaceX's rocket had been scheduled to blast off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral at 7:48 p.m. ET (2348 GMT) with a crew of two US astronauts and one astronaut each from Japan and Russia.
Wilmore and Williams have been working on research and maintenance with the space station's other astronauts and have remained safe, according to NASA. Williams told reporters in a March 4 call that she is looking forward to seeing her family and dogs upon returning home.
"It's been a roller coaster for them, probably a little bit more so than for us," Williams said of her family. "We're here, we have a mission - we're just doing what we do every day, and every day is interesting because we're up in space and it's a lot of fun."
The flight, known as Crew-10, normally would be considered a routine astronaut rotation. Instead, it has become entangled in politics as Trump and Musk have sought - without offering evidence - to blame former President Joe Biden for the delayed return of Wilmore and Williams.
The demands by Trump and Musk for an earlier return were an unusual intervention in NASA's human spaceflight operations. The mission previously had a target date of March 26, but NASA swapped a delayed SpaceX capsule with a different one that would be ready sooner.
When the new crew arrives aboard the station, Wilmore, Williams and two others - NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov - can return to Earth in a capsule that has been attached to the station since September, as part of the prior Crew-9 mission.
Wilmore and Williams cannot leave until the new Crew-10 craft arrives so that the ISS staffed with enough US astronauts for maintenance, according to NASA.
Wilmore and Williams flew to the station in June as the first test crew of Boeing's Starliner, which suffered propulsion system issues in space. NASA deemed it too risky for the astronauts to fly home on the Boeing craft. This led to the current plan to bring them home in a SpaceX capsule.

Most Viewed

 
Varieties

Kenya NGO Saves Turtles from Nets, Plastic and Rising Tides

A matured Loggerhead sea turtle released by staff from Local conservation makes its way back into the ocean, in Watamu on May 23, 2025. (AFP)
A matured Loggerhead sea turtle released by staff from Local conservation makes its way back into the ocean, in Watamu on May 23, 2025. (AFP)
TT
20
TT

Kenya NGO Saves Turtles from Nets, Plastic and Rising Tides

A matured Loggerhead sea turtle released by staff from Local conservation makes its way back into the ocean, in Watamu on May 23, 2025. (AFP)
A matured Loggerhead sea turtle released by staff from Local conservation makes its way back into the ocean, in Watamu on May 23, 2025. (AFP)

A small charity on the Kenyan coast has become vital to the region's majestic turtle population, saving thousands from poachers, fishermen's nets and ever-worsening plastic pollution.

On the beach of the seaside town of Watamu, it takes four men to heave the huge Loggerhead sea turtle into the back of a car.

She has just been saved from a fishing tackle and will be taken to a nearby clinic to be checked for injuries, then weighed, tagged and released back into the sea.

A Kenyan NGO, Local Ocean Conservation (LOC), has been doing this work for almost three decades and has carried out some 24,000 rescues.

"Every time I release a turtle, it's a really great joy for me. My motivation gets stronger and stronger," said Fikiri Kiponda, 47, who has been part of LOC's 20-odd staff for 16 years.

LOC began life in 1997 as a group of volunteers who hated seeing the creatures being eaten or dying in nets.

Turtles are still poached for their shells, meat and oil.

But through the charity's awareness campaigns in schools and villages, "perceptions have significantly changed", said Kiponda.

LOC, which relies mostly on donations, compensates fishermen for bringing them injured turtles.

More than 1,000 fishermen participate in the scheme and mostly do so for the sake of conservation, the charity emphasizes, since the reward does not offset the hours of lost labor.

- Floating turtles -

At the NGO's nearby clinic, health coordinator Lameck Maitha, 34, says turtles are often treated for broken bones and tumors caused by a disease called Fibropapillomatosis.

One current in-patient is Safari, a young Olive Ridley turtle around 15 years old -- turtles can live beyond 100 -- transported by plane from further up the coast.

She arrived in a dire state, barely alive and with a bone protruding from her flipper, which ultimately had to be amputated -- likely the result of fighting to free herself from a fisherman's net.

Safari has been recovering well and the clinic hopes she can return to the sea.

Other frequent tasks include removing barnacles that embed themselves in shells and flippers, weakening their host.

But a growing danger is plastic pollution.

If a turtle eats plastic, it can create a blockage that in turn creates gas, making the turtle float and unable to dive.

In these cases, the clinic gives the turtle laxatives to clear out its system.

"We are seeing more and more floating turtles because the ocean has so much plastic," said Maitha.

- Survivors -

LOC also works to protect 50 to 100 nesting sites, threatened by rising sea levels.

Turtles travel far and wide but always lay their eggs on the beach where they were born, and Watamu is one of the most popular spots.

Every three or four years, they produce hundreds of eggs, laid during multiple sessions over several months, that hatch after around 60 days.

The charity often relocates eggs that have been laid too close to the sea.

Marine biologist Joey Ngunu, LOC's technical manager, always calls the first to appear Kevin.

"And once Kevin comes out, the rest follow," he said with a smile, describing the slow, clumsy procession to the water, preferably at night to avoid predators as much as possible.

Only one in a thousand reaches adulthood of 20-25 years.

"Living in the sea as a turtle must be crazy. You have to face so many dangers, fish and poachers, and now human pressure with plastic and commercial fishing," he said.

"Turtles are definitely survivors."