SpaceX launches rescue mission for NASA astronauts stranded on the International Space Station

SpaceX launched a rescue mission for two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station on Saturday, sending a skeleton crew to bring them home, but not until next year.

The capsule headed 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 return for Wilmore and Williams.

Williams has since been promoted to commander of the space station, which will soon return to its normal population of seven. Once Hague and Gorbunov arrive this weekend, 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 that changes. Maybe this time it’s a little more visible to the public,” he said.

Hague was named commander of the rescue mission because of his experience and his 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. The space agency said both would be eligible to participate in future missions. Gorbunov remained under the cover of an exchange agreement between NASA and the Russian Space Agency.

“I don’t know exactly when my launch into space will be, but I know I will get there,” Cardman said from NASA’s Kennedy Area Heart, where she participated in the live broadcast of the launch.

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 is asked of us. »

SpaceX has long been the leader of NASA’s business 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 that now represents up to 10 crew flights for NASA.

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 Area Heart. 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, while also flying crews from Kennedy’s old Apollo and neighboring shuttle. The company wanted more flexibility as more Falcon rockets soared.