NASA prepares to launch rescue mission for stuck Boeing astronauts

By Loren Grush

SpaceX is poised to launch a two-person crew to the International Space Station, the start of a mission to bring home two NASA astronauts stuck in orbit after flying on Boeing Co.’s Starliner spacecraft.

NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov are slated to take off inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 1:17 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday.

The pair will have two empty seats next to them that NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams will fill when the spacecraft returns next year.

The Crew-9 flight was meant to have a four-person crew but NASA removed two crew members to make room for the Starliner duo after technical failures with Boeing’s spacecraft. Astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson relinquished their seats so their colleagues could return to Earth. 

 

“We’re going to find spots for them to fly,” Ken Bowersox, NASA’s associate administrator for space operations, said of Cardman and Wilson during a Friday press conference. “We really appreciate how hard it is to give up a mission and wait a little bit longer.”

Wilmore and Williams have been on the ISS since June 6, when they arrived on Starliner. During their docking, the spacecraft experienced a number of helium leaks and failures of its thrusters — tiny engines the vehicle uses to maneuver through space. After months of analysis and testing, NASA decided it was too risky to bring them home on the Boeing capsule.

The agency and Boeing instead returned the spacecraft uncrewed on Sept. 6, with the spacecraft landing under parachutes in New Mexico.

“When Starliner landed safely, it was wonderful that it made it back,” Wilmore said during a Sept. 13 press conference from the space station. 

SpaceX’s crewed flights for NASA last about six months, with this vehicle slated to return around February. Wilmore and Williams’ flight on Starliner was supposed to last roughly a week.

“We always miss our families. I miss my two dogs; I miss my friends,” Williams said earlier this month. “There are so many people on Earth that are sending us messages, and it makes you feel just right at home with everybody.”

If Crew-9 launches on Saturday, the capsule is scheduled to dock with the ISS on Sunday at roughly 5:30 p.m. Eastern time.

There are also opportunities to launch on Sunday or Monday should weather or other issues prevent Saturday’s flight, Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s commercial crew program, told reporters on Friday.