U.S. Army Col. Anne McClain, the Lilac City’s local astronaut, will lead a team of four on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission expected to take off Wednesday, March 12, 2025, for a rendezvous in orbit with the International Space Station.
Lilac City astronaut Anne McClain has a cadre of supporters well outside the confines of Spokane County. The shortlist of friends and family members who made the trek to the United States' southeastern tip to watch her set out on a voyage to space include her high school math teacher, half a dozen of her former West Point softball teammates and Congressional Gold Medal recipient Steve Gleason and family.
Spokane astronaut Anne McClain isn’t headed to space just yet. NASA officials delayed the launch scheduled for Wednesday, at 4:48 p.m. Pacific, due to an issue with the hydraulics system on the launchpad discovered about 4 hours before the Falcon 9 rocket and “Endurance” Dragon capsule were set to takeoff.
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s 45th Weather Squadron said earlier that morning that the Florida weather was near perfect for the scheduled launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 launch at 4:48 p.m Pacific Time.
The four members of NASA SpaceX Crew-10 mission -- NASA astronauts Anne McClain, commander; and Nichole Ayers, pilot; along with mission specialists JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov -- are set to launch from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 4:03 p.m. Pacific Time Friday.
As the SpaceX Crew-10 spacecraft prepares for its launch from the Kennedy Space Center next Wednesday, commanded by Spokane’s Col. Anne McClain on her second mission to the International Space Station, what better time than now to look at five great movies about spaceflight.
Rounding out the rest of Crew-10, the 10th SpaceX crew to go to the ISS, are NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers, Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi.
Are you scared to go to space? What does zero gravity feel like? Can you help me understand science? Would you be on my YouTube channel? Thousands of queries addressed to Army Col. Anne McClain, Spokane born and bred and soon bound for the International Space Station, poured in from Spokane and beyond in a letter writing campaign organized by McClain’s high school math teacher.
Now retired, Shari Manikowski educated some of Spokane’s most prominent figures during her nearly 24 years of teaching at Gonzaga Prep, including Congressman Michael Baumgartner, Spokane County Superior Court Judge Tony Hazel, and Steve Gleason, a retired NFL football player and Congressional Gold Medal recipient for his work advocating for those diagnosed with ALS. But she likes to say her “claim to fame” is having the privilege of being NASA astronaut Anne McClain’s high school math teacher.
