Stuck NASA astronauts welcome SpaceX capsule that’ll bring them home next year
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The two astronauts stuck in the International Space Station since June, they welcomed their new ride home with the arrival of a SpaceX capsule on Sunday.
SpaceX launched the rescue mission on Saturday with a reduced crew of two astronauts and two empty seats reserved Butch Wilmore and Suni Williamswho returns next year. The Dragon capsule docked in the dark as the two craft hovered 426 kilometers above Botswana.
NASA switched Wilmore and Williams to SpaceX due to concerns about the safety of their systems Boeing Starliner capsule. It was the first Starliner test flight with a crew, and NASA decided that the thruster failures and helium leaks that appeared after takeoff were too serious and poorly understood to risk the return of the test pilots. So Starliner returned to Earth empty earlier this month.
The Dragon carrying NASA’s Nick Haag and the Russian Space Agency’s Alexander Gorbunov will remain on the space station until February, turning what was supposed to be a week-long trip for Wilmore and Williams into a more than eight-month mission.
Two NASA astronauts were removed from the mission to make room for Wilmore and Williams on the return trip.
NASA likes to replace its station crews every six months. SpaceX has provided the taxi service since the company’s first astronaut flight in 2020. NASA also hired Boeing for ferry flights after the space shuttles were retired, but faulty software and other Starliner problems led to years of delays and more than $1 billion in repairs.
Starliner inspections are underway at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, and post-flight reviews of the data set begin this week.
“We’re a long way from being able to say, ‘Hey, we’re writing off Boeing,’” NASA Administrator Jim Free said during a pre-launch briefing.
The arrival of two new astronauts means the four who have been there since March can now return to Earth in their own SpaceX capsule in just over a week. Their stay was extended by a month due to the unrest in Starliner.
Although Saturday’s launch went well, SpaceX said the rocket’s spent upper stage ended up outside the intended impact zone in the Pacific Ocean due to poor engine firing. The company has halted all Falcon launches until it knows what went wrong.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.