their return postponed until the end of March “at the earliest”

The two American astronauts stuck since June in the International Space Station (ISS) will not return to Earth before “the end of March at the earliest”, NASA announced on Tuesday.

Initially heading into space for an eight-day mission, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, two space veterans, have been stuck on the ISS for six months due to malfunctions on the Boeing Starliner spacecraft that had transported them to space. June.

A new spacecraft in development

After long weeks of tests on Starliner, the American space agency decided in the summer to bring it back empty and bring back the two castaways with the SpaceX Crew-9 mission.

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The latter took off at the end of September with two passengers on board – instead of the four initially planned – to leave two seats free and joined the ISS where it is now waiting to be relayed by the Crew-10 mission. However, NASA announced on Tuesday the postponement from February to “the end of March at the earliest” of the launch of Crew-10 in order to give “the NASA and SpaceX teams time to complete the development of a new Dragon spacecraft “.

Nine months instead of eight days…

This announcement therefore further delays the return to Earth of the two shipwrecked astronauts and the crew of Crew-9.
If they return in March, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will have spent more than nine months in space instead of the eight days 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.

“The transition wasn’t that difficult”

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 difficult,” Suni Williams said. We’re both from the Navy, we’ve both been deployed before. We are not surprised when missions are changed. »