CAPE CAAVERAL, Fla. (AP) SpaceX launched a rescue mission Saturday for the two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station, sending a reduced crew to bring them home, but not until next year.
The capsule was launched into orbit to bring back test pilots whose Boeing spacecraft returned empty to Earth earlier this month for safety reasons. The change of trip left the operations to recover Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams in the hands of Nick Hague of NASA and Alexander Gorbunov of Russia.
Since NASA rotates space station crews approximately every six months, this newly launched flight with two empty seats reserved for Wilmore and Williams will not return until late February. Officials said there was no way to bring them back sooner on a SpaceX vehicle without disrupting other scheduled missions.
By the time they return, the couple will have spent more than eight months in space. They expected to be gone just a week when they signed up for Boeing’s first astronaut flight that launched in June.
Ultimately, NASA decided that Boeing’s Starliner posed too many risks after its trip to the orbital complex was beset by a series of propellant problems and helium leaks. The space agency removed two astronauts from its SpaceX launch to make way for Wilmore and Williams on the return stage.
Williams has since been promoted to commander of the Space Station, which will soon regain its normal population of seven people. Once Hague and Gorbunov arrive this weekend, four astronauts who have lived there since March will be able to leave in their own SpaceX capsule. His return home was delayed a month due to problems with the Starliner.
Signal before takeoff that change is the constant in human spaceflight.
There is always something that is changing. Maybe this time it was a little more visible to the public, he said.
NASA rookie astronaut Zena Cardman and veteran space pilot Stephanie Wilson were removed from this flight after NASA opted for SpaceX to bring the stranded astronauts to Earth. The space agency stressed that both will be eligible for future missions. Gorbunov remained under an exchange agreement between NASA and the Russian Space Agency.
“I don’t know exactly when my launch into space will be, but I know I will get there,” Cardman said from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where he participated in the live broadcast of the launch.
Hague recognized the challenges of a half-crew launch and returning with two trained astronauts for another spacecraft.
“We have a dynamic challenge ahead of us,” Hague said after arriving from Houston last weekend. We know each other, we are professionals, we step forward and do what is asked of us.
SpaceX has long been the leader in NASA’s commercial crew program, established when the space shuttles were retiring more than a decade ago. SpaceX beat Boeing in transporting astronauts to the Space Station in 2020 and now there are up to 10 crewed flights for NASA.
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