CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX launched a rescue mission Saturday for the two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station, sending a skeleton crew to bring them home, but not until next year.
The capsule went into orbit to pick up test pilots whose Boeing spacecraft returned to Earth empty earlier this month for safety reasons. The change of ride left NASA’s Nick Hague and Russian Alexander Gorbunov to pick up Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.
Since NASA rotates space station crews approximately every six months, this newly launched flight with two empty seats reserved for Wilmore and Williams won’t return until late February. Officials said there was no way to get them back to SpaceX sooner without interrupting other scheduled missions.
When they return, the two men will have spent more than eight months in space. They expected to be gone just a week when they signed up for Boeing’s first astronaut flight, launching in June.
NASA ultimately decided Boeing’s Starliner was too risky after a cascade of propellant problems and helium leaks spoiled its journey to the orbiting complex. The space agency removed two astronauts from this SpaceX launch to make room on the Dragon capsule’s return journey for Wilmore and Williams.
Wilmore and Williams watched the liftoff via a live link sent to the space station, prompting a cheer of “Go Dragon!” ” from Williams, said Dina Contella, NASA deputy program director.
Williams was promoted to commander of the space station, which will soon return to its normal population of seven. Once The Hague and Gorbunov arrive on Sunday, four astronauts who have lived there since March will be able to leave in their own SpaceX capsule. Their return home was delayed for a month due to the unrest in Starliner.
Hague emphasized before the flight that change is the only constant in human spaceflight.
“There is always something changing. Maybe this time it was a little more visible to the public,” he said.
Hague was named commander of the rescue mission due to his experience and handling of a launch emergency six years ago. The Russian rocket failed shortly after liftoff and the capsule carrying him and a cosmonaut was catapulted to safety.
Rookie NASA astronaut Zena Cardman and space aviation veteran Stephanie Wilson were removed from that flight after NASA opted to use SpaceX to bring the stranded astronauts home. Promised for a future space mission, both were at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, participating in the live launch. Gorbunov remained on the flight as part of an exchange agreement between NASA and the Russian Space Agency.
“Each crew launch that I was able to see really brought me a lot of emotion. Today’s was particularly unique,” Cardman said with tears in his eyes after takeoff early in the afternoon. “It was hard not to watch that rocket take off without thinking, ‘That’s my rocket and that’s my crew.’ »
A few moments before takeoff, Hague paid tribute to his two colleagues who remained behind: “Unbreakable. We did it together. Once in orbit, he called it a “sweet journey” and thanked everyone who made it possible.
Earlier, Hague acknowledged the challenges of launching with half a crew and returning with two trained astronauts on another spacecraft.
“We have a dynamic challenge ahead of us,” Hague said after arriving from Houston last weekend. “We know each other and we are professionals and we step up and do what we are asked.”
SpaceX has long been the leader of NASA’s commercial crew program, created as the space shuttles were being retired more than a decade ago. SpaceX beat Boeing in delivering astronauts to the space station in 2020, and NASA is now up to 10 crew flights.
Boeing has faced various problems over the years, repeating a Starliner test flight with no one on board after the first one veered off course. The Starliner that left Wilmore and Williams in space landed safely in the New Mexico desert on September 6 and has since returned to the Kennedy Space Center. A week ago, Boeing’s defense and space chief was replaced.
Delayed by Hurricane Helene that hit Florida, SpaceX’s latest liftoff marked the first for astronauts at Launch Complex 40 of the Cape Canaveral space station. SpaceX took over the old Titan rocket platform nearly two decades ago and used it to launch satellites and cargo stations, while also flying crews from Kennedy’s old Apollo and neighboring shuttle . The company wanted more flexibility as more Falcon rockets soared.
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