The astronaut duo who flew Boeing’s Starliner capsule on its first manned mission will have to wait a while to be reunited with us Earth.
The next crew rotation mission will be to international space station NASA announced on Tuesday (December 17) that the launch of SpaceX’s Crew-10 spacecraft (International Space Station) has been postponed to no earlier than late March 2025.
Crew-10 was originally Scheduled to fly in Februarybut has been postponed to allow time Space Exploration Technologies Corporation Complete a new job crew dragon spacecraft on mission, NASA Said in a statement Tuesday.
The delay means SpaceX Crew-9 astronauts will have at least an extra month aboard the International Space Station, and they won’t be able to leave the orbiting laboratory until Crew-10 arrives.
The Crew-9 roster includes NASA’s Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who Launched to the International Space Station exist starliner In early June, due to vehicle complexity and safety issues, Starliner was forced to return to Earth without astronauts and was included in the SpaceX mission.
New delays will bring Wilmore and Williams’ time exist space About nine months in total – far longer than their original estimated mission duration of about 10 days.
Although it was an unexpectedly long time, nine months was not too strange. Other NASA astronauts have spent much longer time on the International Space Station. The space agency’s year-long “twin studyFor example, in 2015 and 2016, Scott Kelly spent 340 days on the International Space Station. , becoming the first American to stay in space for more than 365 consecutive days. Soyuz spacecraft A leak has occurred.
Related: Boeing Starliner capsule returns to Earth without astronauts, ending troubled test flight (Video)
Crew-9 uses the Crew Dragon space capsule Freedom, which was launched to the space station in September. Falcon 9 Rocket. Of the four originally planned for the mission, Liberty carried only two astronauts – NASA’s Nick Hague and astronaut Alexander Gorbunov. NASA astronauts Zena Cadman and Stephanie Wilson Disengaged from mission Seats were made on the Liberty for Wilmore and Williams to return later.
Freedom is one of four Crew Dragon spacecraft currently in the SpaceX fleet. The other two, Endeavor and Endurance, are still in rotation for use in NASA’s commercial crew program and private astronaut flights, e.g. Axiom space mission. The fourth “Resilience” flew on SpaceX’s Crew-1 mission and has since been used in billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist Jared Isaacman’s private space flight pursuits. Jared Isaacman was recently appointed by President-elect Donald Trump. next NASA administrator.
Adding a fifth Crew Dragon spacecraft to its fleet will give SpaceX more versatility in its commercial products and services NASA Its mission also exhibits some additional flexibility. For example, if a fifth Dragon spacecraft can be launched without affecting the Crew-9 and Crew-10 missions, NASA may use such a vehicle to bring Starliner’s Wilmore and Williams home early.
“We’re grateful to the SpaceX team for their hard work in expanding the Dragon fleet to support our mission, and to the space station program and expedition crews for the incredible work we’ve done together,” said Steve Stich, NASA capsule manager. The flexibility shown in preparing the new capsule for flight.
New Crew Dragon spacecraft expected to arrive at SpaceX’s processing facility at NASA Kennedy Space CenterIn early January, it will undergo final processing and inspections before its first launch on Florida’s Space Coast. “The fabrication, assembly, testing and final integration of a new spacecraft is painstaking work that requires a high level of attention to detail,” Stich said in the statement.
The members of the SpaceX Crew-10 mission are NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Astronaut Takuya Onishi and Astronaut Kirill Peskov. If all goes according to plan, a Falcon 9 launch to the International Space Station in late March will allow Crew-9 to return to Earth in early April after the typical crew overlap period as station control and operating responsibilities are handed over to the crew .