Al Root

Elon Musk's SpaceX launched four astronauts to the International Space Station just after 7 p.m. Eastern time on Friday.

The spaceship, on its way to Earth's orbiting science laboratory, will pave the way for a return home for astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.

In June, they traveled to the ISS on a Boeing Starliner, but technical difficulties prevented Boeing from bringing them home.

Boeing is trying to certify its Starliner with NASA. SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft has been flying astronauts since 2020.

Coming into the current NASA Crew-10 mission, SpaceX has carried 56 crew members to the ISS. The four astronauts traveling on Friday are Commander Anne McClain, Pilot Nichole Ayers, Mission Specialist Takuya Onishi, and Russian Cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.

Docking is targeted for late on Saturday.

Williams and Wilmore will return in the Dragon capsule currently docked at the ISS. The ship on its way will stay.

The launch took place on Pi Day, Mar. 14, the 23rd anniversary of SpaceX's founding. SpaceX's rise has been remarkable. It pioneered reusable rockets, dramatically lowering the cost of reaching space. It now handles roughly half of the world's orbital launches and more than 80% of launches, excluding Chinese and Russian rocket launches.

The launch was delayed on Wednesday due to a "ground hydraulics issue." SpaceX and NASA scrubbed it to be certain everything was "nominal," which is space-speak for OK. An air bubble in the hydraulics arm that holds the rocket while it stands on the launch pad was suspected of causing the scrub.

Through Friday trading, Boeing stock was down about 7.5% since NASA decided to use SpaceX to return the astronauts in August. The S&P 500 was flat over the same span.

Boeing stock doesn't typically trade on its space-related business. Investors are more concerned with its commercial airplane business. Investors want to see more planes built in 2025. Wall Street projects deliveries of about 55o jets, up from 348 in 2024.

Boeing hasn't produced a full-year profit since 2018, the year before the second tragic 737 MAX crash, which grounded the plane worldwide between March 2019 and November 2020.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

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March 14, 2025 19:33 ET (23:33 GMT)

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