Sunita Williams' rescue derailed: What went wrong with SpaceX launch and what’s next

With the countdown clock ticking and less than an hour to liftoff, SpaceX slammed the brakes on a high-stakes mission to rescue NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore — stranded in space for nine months. The Falcon 9 rocket, poised on the launchpad in Florida, was moments away from carrying four astronauts to the International Space Station when a critical ground system failure forced an abrupt halt, throwing rescue plans into disarray and leaving the space community holding its breath.

What went wrong

According to NASA and SpaceX, the launch was scrubbed due to a hydraulic system issue with a ground support clamp arm on the Falcon 9 rocket at Launch Complex 39A. The malfunction was detected just hours before liftoff, involving a clamp arm on the transporter-erector system—the structure that holds and releases the rocket at launch. The faulty arm raised serious concerns about safely keeping the rocket in place and ensuring a stable launch.

"Mission managers met this evening and decided to wave off a launch attempt on Thursday, March 13, due to high winds and precipitation forecasted in the flight path of Dragon," NASA said. The next available launch attempt is now no earlier than 7:03 pm EDT (4:33 am IST) on Friday, March 14, depending on how quickly the issue is resolved.

Why Sunita Williams and Wilmore are waiting

The delay deepens a long ordeal for Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who were originally sent to the ISS in June aboard Boeing’s Starliner, a spacecraft that later suffered propulsion issues, making it too risky for a return trip. Since then, the pair has remained on board, unable to leave until a replacement crew arrives.

NASA had fast-tracked this Crew-10 mission — moving it up by two weeks — under pressure to bring Williams and Wilmore home. SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule was supposed to ferry NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA’s Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos’ Kirill Peskov to the station, allowing Williams and Wilmore to board the Dragon capsule docked there since September for their return.

"It's been a roller coaster for them, probably a little bit more so than for us," Williams said earlier. "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."

Once Crew-10 arrives, Williams and Wilmore, along with NASA's Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, will head back to Earth, potentially by March 17, if weather allows. Until then, the rescue mission is on hold.