CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA – SpaceX launched a rescue mission for the two trapped astronauts at the International Space Station on Saturday, sending up a smaller crew to bring them home, but only until next year.
The capsule launched into orbit to retrieve the test pilots, whose Boeing aircraft had returned to Earth empty earlier this month due to safety concerns. The change in rides required NASA’s Nick Hague and Russia’s Alexander Gorbunov to retrieve Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.
Because NASA rotates space station crews every six months, this recently launched spacecraft, which has two vacant seats allocated for Wilmore and Williams, will not return until late February. Officials claimed there was no way to bring them back sooner on SpaceX without disrupting other scheduled operations.
SpaceX Launches Rescue Mission For 2 NASA Astronauts Who Are Stuck In Space Until Next Year
By the time they return, the two will have spent over eight months in space. They signed up for Boeing’s first astronaut journey, which launched in June, expecting to be gone for only a week.
NASA ultimately judged that Boeing’s Starliner was too risky after a series of thruster problems and helium leaks hampered its journey to the orbiting complex. The space agency removed two astronauts from this SpaceX mission to create room on the Dragon capsule’s return leg for Wilmore and Williams.
According to NASA deputy program manager Dina Contella, Wilmore and Williams observed the liftoff via a live link broadcast to the space station, causing Williams to scream “Go Dragon!”.
Williams has been appointed to commander of the space station, which will soon return to its normal crew of seven. Once Hague and Gorbunov arrive on Sunday, the four astronauts who have been there since March will be able to leave in their own SpaceX capsule. Starliner’s problems caused a month-long delay in their return home.
Hague stated before the trip that change is the one constant in human spaceflight.
“There is always something that changes. “Maybe this time it was more visible to the public,” he explained.
Hague was appointed commander of the rescue mission based on his experience and handling of a launch incident six years prior. The Russian rocket failed shortly after takeoff, and the capsule holding him and a cosmonaut was propelled off the top to safety.
Rookie NASA astronaut Zena Cardman and veteran space flier Stephanie Wilson were removed from this journey after NASA decided to work with SpaceX to bring the trapped astronauts home. Both promised a future space voyage and were there at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre to watch the launch live. Gorbunov remained aboard the voyage as part of a NASA-Russian Space Agency exchange agreement.
“Every crewed launch that I’ve ever seen has made me quite emotional. “This one today was especially unique,” a teary-eyed Cardman said after the early afternoon launch. “It was hard not to watch that rocket lift off without thinking, ‘That’s my rocket and that’s my crew.'”
Moments before liftoff, Hague paid tribute to his two colleagues who were left behind, saying, “Unbreakable. “We did it together.” Once in orbit, he referred to it as a “sweet ride” and expressed gratitude to everyone who made it possible.
SpaceX Launches Rescue Mission For 2 NASA Astronauts Who Are Stuck In Space Until Next Year
“We’ve got a dynamic challenge ahead of us,” Hague stated after returning from Houston last weekend. “We know each other and we’re professionals and we step up and do what’s asked of us.”
SpaceX has long been at the forefront of NASA’s commercial crew program, which began more than a decade ago while the space shuttles were being retired. In 2020, SpaceX outperformed Boeing in terms of astronaut delivery to the space station, and NASA now has ten crew trips scheduled.
Boeing has struggled with a number of challenges over the years, including repeating a Starliner test flight with no one on board after the original one went 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 Space Centre. Boeing removed its defence and space chief a week ago.
The latest SpaceX liftoff, delayed by Hurricane Helene battering Florida, was the first for astronauts from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Launch Complex 40. SpaceX took over the old Titan rocket pad nearly two decades ago and utilised it for satellite and station cargo launches, as well as flying people from Kennedy’s older Apollo and shuttle pads next door. As the number of Falcon rockets increased, the firm desired greater flexibility.
SOURCE | AP
