The occupants of the “Starliner” capsule will not use their spacecraft to return to Earth, but will come home in the “Dragon” capsule of the Crew 9 mission.
According to RCO News Agency, NASA has removed two astronauts from an upcoming SpaceX mission to make room for two passengers on the Starliner capsule.
According to Spacey, NASA officials announced on Friday, August 30, that SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission will only carry NASA astronaut Nick Hague and the commander of the US Space Force, and Alexander Gorbunov, an astronaut from the Russian Space Agency. And the specialist will deliver the mission to the International Space Station. This frees up two seats in the Dragon capsule for NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who cannot board Boeing’s Starliner capsule as planned. return to earth, bring back home.
Wilmore and Williams
Crew 9’s original commander Zena Cardman and mission specialist Stephanie Wilson will be out of the spaceflight, but NASA officials noted that NASA astronauts are eligible for future missions. Haig was originally the pilot of Crew 9, but will now command it. Gorbunov will remain as mission specialist.
On its first manned test mission, Starliner arrived at the International Space Station on June 6 after experiencing problems with its propulsion system and thrusters. After two months of testing and safety debates, NASA finally declared that the risk of returning Wilmore and Williams home with the Starliner was unacceptable due to uncertainty about how the engines would perform.
Read more:
The Starliner spacecraft returns to Earth without its astronauts
NASA considered several options for the return of the Starliner astronauts before deciding to launch the half-empty Crew 9 spacecraft and the expected end of the mission in February 2025. This will allow Crew 9 to make a normal orbit around the International Space Station and bring the Starliner astronauts home after nearly eight months in space. The Crew 9 mission was delayed from its original launch date of August 18 to make the necessary changes.
However, the new target for the Crew 9 launch on September 24 is more uncertain than usual. SpaceX’s “Falcon 9” rocket, which was responsible for launching the Dragon capsule, landed on Wednesday, August 28, following an explosion during a mission to launch “Starlink” satellites.
Read more:
“Falcon 9” rocket caught fire after launching “Starlink” satellites
Crew 9 is Gorbunov’s first flight. His seat is under NASA’s agreement with the Russian space agency to fly an astronaut from this country on the SpaceX mission. In contrast, NASA receives seats on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft for political and support reasons.
Haig has been to space twice as a NASA astronaut with the US Air Force, but his first visit was brief. On October 11, 2018, he was on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft with Russian space agency Alexei Ovchinin, but the mission was stopped minutes after launch due to a rocket problem. The spacecraft reached the space for a short time before returning to Earth with the crew and not harming them.
Five months later in 2019, Haig and Ovchinin successfully reached the International Space Station during their second Soyuz mission on a 203-day mission.
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