After already six months spent on the International Space Station following problems on their Boeing spacecraft, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will spend at least three more. The SpaceX Dragon ship supposed to bring them back to Earth still needs time.
After Christmas in space, the two astronauts stuck since June in the International Space Station (ISS) will also celebrate, from up there, Mardi Gras and Saint Patrick’s Day. NASA announced Tuesday evening, December 17, that they would not be returning to Earth.end of March”, and again, “as soon as possible».
The mission was initially scheduled to last eight days for Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, two space veterans. But they have now been stuck for six months on the ISS, due to malfunctions on the Boeing Starliner spacecraft which transported them in June and was supposed to bring them back to Earth.
After long weeks of tests on the Boeing space vehicle, the American agency decided in the summer to bring it back empty and to bring back the two castaways in February with the Crew-9 mission deployed by SpaceX. The latter took off on September 29 with two passengers on board – instead of the four initially planned – to bring back Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams.
The Crew-10 relay for their return to Earth is, however, postponed by more than a month, until the end of March, in order to give “to NASA and SpaceX teams to complete the development of a new Dragon spacecraft» which will welcome the crew of Crew-10, justified the American space agency.
Nine months in space
This announcement therefore delays the return to Earth of the two shipwrecked astronauts and those of the Crew-9 crew – NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexandre Gorbounov – who came to rescue them. If they return in March, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will have spent more than nine months in space instead of the short week initially planned.
They were conducting the first crewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner when problems were detected with the propulsion system. These failures led NASA to question the reliability of the vessel, a snub for the American manufacturer already mired in repeated setbacks with its airliners.
During a press conference at the beginning of September, the two astronauts nevertheless assured that they were adapting well to their extended stay. “The transition wasn’t that difficultdeclared Suni Williams. We’re both from the Navy, we’ve both been deployed before. We are not surprised when missions are changed.»
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