This week, NASA will send a rescue mission to the International Space Station.
On Thursday (September 26), NASA astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos will be launched into the International Space Station (ISS) on SpaceX's Crew-9 mission. Two other NASA astronauts, Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson, both mission specialists, were also supposed to be on board.
But Wilson and Cardman were cut off from flight to make room for two other NASA astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who are currently trapped on the station Without an exclusive trip homeThe duo will travel home alongside Hague and Gorbunov when Crew 9 departs in February 2025, having spent about eight months in space. Williams and Wilmore were supposed to spend only about 10 days in space. How did NASA get to this position?
Shortly after Wilmore and Williams launched on the Crew Flight Test (CFT), the first astronaut mission on Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, on June 5, the capsule experienced problems. Five of its 28 reaction controls The thrusters malfunctionedand several Helium leaks They were detected in the spacecraft's propulsion system.
NASA spent weeks diagnosing the problems through tests with Starliner hardware at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico. Wilmore and Williams also Propulsion tests were carried out on the Starliner docked at the ISS to try to produce as much data as possible for mission teams on Ground to analyze in order to determine if the vehicle was a safe ride home for astronauts.
“Our biggest concern is achieving a successful deorbit burn, making sure the (propulsion) system performs exactly as it should, throughout the entire deorbit burn process,” said Ken Bowersox, associate administrator for NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate. During a briefing on August 14.
Finally, the space agency announced 10 days later that it had decided bring the vehicle home without its crewThat left the two Starliner astronauts, Williams and Wilmore, stuck at the orbital outpost until they could catch a flight home on Crew 9.
Related: Boeing Starliner astronauts will return home on a SpaceX Dragon in 2025, NASA confirms
Starliner's first uncrewed flight test was also unsuccessful. In December 2019, the spacecraft was launched Failed to reach space station A second unmanned accident has occurred due to software problems. Orbital flight test in May 2022 He arrived at the station and returned without problems, although eight months later than scheduled.
After the CFT concluded with Starliner landing uncrewed in the New Mexico desert on Sept. 7, 2024, NASA leaders said Wilmore and Williams It would have been nice “It would have been a safe and successful landing with the crew on board,” Steve Stich, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, said during a post-landing news conference earlier this month.
But, invoking the lessons learned from the space shuttle Following the Challenger and Columbia disasters, NASA stressed that it does not want to put astronauts at greater risk than necessary.
“The decision to keep Butch and Suni on board the International Space Station and bring home the Boeing Starliner uncrewed is the result of a commitment to safety,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. He told reporters on August 24th.
“NASA has since worked hard to create an atmosphere where people are encouraged to come forward and speak their minds, and I think today is a good example of that,” Nelson said.
NASA was in a similar situation last year. Astronaut Frank Rubio was stranded on the ISS when a Violent coolant leak appeared on the Russian Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft that traveled to the ISS as part of the Expedition 68 mission.
Rubio would continue Spending 371 continuous days in spacebreaking an American record while waiting for a Soyuz replacement for a trip home.
In addition to being a “rescue mission” of sorts, Crew-9 will be historic for several other reasons. It will be the first crewed launch to lift off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, and only the second crewed launch from the Space Force site overall, following Starliner CFT Launch in June.
Crew 9 Commander Nick Hague will also become the First active U.S. Space Force Guardian to launch into space since the branch was established in 2019.
