2024-09-28 17:59:09
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket left Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Saturday to recover Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, stranded since early June in the International Space Station. The two astronauts should be back on Earth at the end of February.
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SpaceX launched a rescue mission for two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station on Saturday, September 28, sending a reduced crew to bring them back, but this will not happen until next year.
The capsule took off to pick up test pilots whose Boeing spacecraft had returned to Earth empty earlier this month due to safety concerns. Nick Hague from NASA and Alexander Gorbunov from Roscosmos will be tasked with recovering Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.
Since NASA rotates space station crews about every six months, this newly launched flight, with two empty seats reserved, won’t return until late February. Officials said there was no way to bring them back sooner with SpaceX without disrupting other scheduled missions.
Ten crew flights for NASA
When they return, the duo will have spent more than eight months in space. They expected to be gone only a week when they signed on for Boeing’s first astronaut flight launching in June.
Ultimately, NASA decided that Boeing’s Starliner was too risky after a series of propellant problems and helium leaks during its journey to the orbital complex. The space agency removed two astronauts from this SpaceX launch to make room for the return of Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.
SpaceX has long been the leader of NASA’s commercial crew program, established as the space shuttles were being retired more than a decade ago. SpaceX beat Boeing in taking astronauts to the space station in 2020. The company led by Elon Musk has now completed ten crew flights for NASA.
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