SpaceX launched the rescue mission Saturday with a skeleton crew of two astronauts and two empty seats reserved for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who will return next year. The Dragon capsule docked in the darkness as the two craft rose 426 kilometers above Botswana.
NASA transferred MM. Wilmore and Williams to SpaceX following concerns about the safety of their Boeing Starliner capsule.
This was Starliner’s first crewed test flight, and NASA decided that the propellant failures and helium leaks that occurred after liftoff were too serious and poorly understood to risk the return of the test pilots. Starliner therefore returned to Earth empty at the beginning of the month.
The Dragon capsule carrying NASA’s Nick Hague and the Russian space agency’s Alexander Gorbunov will remain at the space station until February, turning what should have been a week-long trip for Messrs. Wilmore and Williams in a mission lasting more than eight months.
Two NASA astronauts were removed from the mission to make way for astronauts Wilmore and Williams to return.
“I just want to welcome our new comrades,” Mr. Williams, the space station commander, said once Messrs. Hague and Gorbunov floated inside and were hugged by the nine astronauts waiting for them.
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Mr Hague said the flight went smoothly. “Coming out of the hatch and seeing all these smiles, and even though I’ve laughed and cried a lot in the last 10 minutes, I know it’s going to be an incredible journey,” he said.
NASA likes to replace its station crews every six months or so. SpaceX has provided the taxi service since the company’s first astronaut flight in 2020. NASA also contracted Boeing for ferry flights after the space shuttles were retired, but faulty software and other Starliner issues have resulted in years of delays and more than a billion dollars in repairs.
Starliner inspections are underway at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, and post-flight data reviews are expected to begin this week.
“We’re a long way from saying, ‘Hey, we’re giving up on Boeing,'” NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free said in a prelaunch meeting.
Although Saturday’s liftoff went well, SpaceX said the rocket’s spent upper stage ended up outside its targeted impact zone in the Pacific due to improper engine ignition. The company halted all Falcon launches until it found out what happened. was extended by a month due to the Starliner turmoil.
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