This week, NASA will launch an unexpected and urgent mission to repatriate astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been delayed on the International Space Station (ISS) for months due to technical issues with Boeing’s Starliner airplane.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission, set to launch on Thursday, September 26, will now serve as a rescue mission for Williams and Wilmore, who were only supposed to spend around 10 days in space. They have been stranded on the ISS for nearly four months due to Starliner problems, with their homecoming set for February 2025.
Sunita Williams, one of NASA’s most experienced astronauts, and Butch Wilmore will launch on Boeing’s Starliner on June 5, 2024, for the spacecraft’s first crewed flight test. It was a breakthrough moment for Boeing, proving the Starliner’s ability to transport passengers to and from the ISS. However, serious technical issues occurred just days after docking with the ISS.
Five of Starliner’s 28 thrusters failed, and helium leaks were discovered throughout the propulsion system. These issues compromised the spacecraft’s ability to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and land safely.NASA spent weeks debugging, with Williams and Wilmore testing rockets in space as ground teams sought to identify issues.
Regardless of their efforts, NASA finally decided it was too
This stranded Williams and Wilmore on the ISS, waiting for a new plan to get home. NASA offered a solution in the form of the next SpaceX Crew-9 mission.
NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson were initially scheduled to fly with Crew-9 but were shifted to future missions to make room for Williams and Wilmore. Now, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov will go to the ISS on Crew-9, and after the mission concludes in February 2025, Williams and Wilmore will accompany them back to the SpaceX Dragon ship.
Hague, an experienced astronaut, and Space Force officer, will lead the trip. Gorbunov, making his first voyage into space, will work as a mission expert. Crew-9 was originally scheduled as a standard rotation assignment, but its new status as a “rescue mission” has increased its urgency and necessity.
Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have already spent months more in orbit than originally expected. While their longer presence on the ISS enables them to contribute to continuing research and station maintenance, the scenario has been compared to astronaut Frank Rubio’s extended mission in 2022. Rubio spent 371 days in space because of a coolant leak on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, which delayed his homecoming.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson emphasized the agency’s dedication to safety in deciding to return Starliner without its crew. ” previous catastrophes such as the Challenger and Columbia shuttle disasters.
While Crew-9’s primary objective is now to rescue Williams and Wilmore, it is also a historic launch in and of itself. It will be the first crewed launch from Space Launch Complex-40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, marking an important milestone for SpaceX and NASA.