Q24N — The two astronauts who have been stranded on the International Space Station since June welcomed the SpaceX capsule on Sunday that will carry them back to Earth.
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.
NASA opted to have Wilmore and Williams return to Earth aboard SpaceX amid concerns about the safety of its Boeing Starliner capsule. It was Starliner’s first crewed flight, and the space agency decided that the thruster failures and helium leaks that arose after liftoff were too severe and their cause was not sufficiently understood to put pilots at risk. So Starliner returned empty a few weeks ago.
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The Dragon carrying NASA’s Nick Hague and the Russian Space Agency’s Alexander Gorbunov will remain at the space station until February, turning what was supposed to be a weeklong trip for Wilmore and Williams into a mission of more than eight months.
Two NASA astronauts were removed from the mission to make room for Wilmore and Williams on the return trip.
NASA typically replaces its station crew about every six months.
Although Saturday’s liftoff went off without a hitch, SpaceX said the rocket’s discarded upper stage ended up outside the planned impact zone in the Pacific due to an engine misfire. The company has suspended all Falcon launches until it figures out what went wrong.
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