NASA directors converse throughout a information convention to debate plans to return two astronauts who stay stranded on the Worldwide Area Station, at Johnson Area Heart in Houston, Texas, on August 24, 2024.
Mark Felix | AFP | Getty Photographs
NASA stated on Friday it can exchange two crew members for an upcoming SpaceX flight to accommodate the 2 astronauts aboard the Worldwide Area Station who had arrived on Boeing‘s defective Starliner capsule.
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, each former navy check pilots who launched aboard the Starliner spacecraft in June, will exchange Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson on the SpaceX mission.
Final week, NASA officers deemed points with Starliner’s propulsion system too dangerous to deliver its first crew residence as deliberate, dealing a serious blow to Boeing’s struggling area program.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, initially set to launch 4 astronauts to the ISS on Aug. 18, has had its mission, dubbed Crew-9, rescheduled by NASA to “no sooner than” Sept. 24.
Cardman, initially chosen because the mission’s commander, and Wilson, the mission specialist, stay eligible for reassignment to future missions, NASA stated in a launch.
Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov will proceed as a part of the crew and fly again with Wilmore and Williams in February 2025.
Hague, initially designated because the pilot, will now take over as commander, whereas Gorbunov will retain his function as mission specialist, the area company stated.
NASA’s determination to enlist Boeing’s chief area rival, SpaceX, to return the astronauts marks one other setback for the embattled U.S. planemaker and represents one in every of NASA’s most consequential choices in years.
Boeing had pinned its area hopes on the success of the Starliner check mission, hoping it will redeem the troubled program after years of improvement challenges.
