Iraq & Syria War Veteran Mans Mission to Rescue Astronauts
Nichole Ayers commands NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission (Image credit US Department of Defense)
Nichole Ayers Leads Crew to Bring Back Sunita Williams, Butch Willmore
By TRH News Desk
New Delhi, March 18: Nichole Ayers is a veteran air force pilot with split-second decision-making skill as her key strength. She leads the crew that will bring back stranded astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Willmore back to Florida this evening.
Sunita Williams and Butch Willmore had been stranded in the space for nine months. The NASA said in latest updates that the crew will return after completing the handover drills for the replacement astronauts.
Ayers is commanding NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket propelled the Dragon spacecraft into orbit on March 14, 2025. Anne McClain is mission commander. The crew also consists of Takuya Onishi, a Japanese astronaut, and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. In 28.5 hours, SpaceX Crew-10 mission docked with the International Space Station, notching a speed of 17,000 mph in orbit of earth.
Before joining NASA in 2021, Ayers flew fighter jets to bomb Syria and Iraq. The US Department of Defense said that Ayers has “more than 200 combat hours during Operation Inherent Resolve over Iraq and Syria and more than 1,400 flight hours in the T-38 Talon and F-22 Raptor”.
“Most of my training has been in the operational realm; learning to make split-second decisions. We train for the worst and hope for the best — training to go to the International Space Station is no different, Ayers was quoted saying by the US Department of Defense.
Manning the rescue mission also fulfilled her childhood dream. She had joined the US Air Force to pursue her dream of space voyage. Ayers served as the 3rd Wing, 90th Fighter Squadron assistant director of operations before joining NASA.
“As a child, I always loved flying and space and grew up during the shuttle era. When I learned you could fly the space shuttle, I knew I wanted to be a pilot in the Air Force and pursue my dreams of becoming a NASA astronaut through that path,” Ayers said.
Williams and Willmore had gone to the International Space Station for an eight-day assignment. But technical snag left them stranded for nine months. US President Donald Trump had accused his predecessor Joe Biden of abandoning the astronauts.
Trump tasked his billionaire friend and head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to bring back the stranded astronauts. The NASA said that the splashdown will take place off the Florida coast on Tuesday evening, 5.57 pm local time.
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