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Earlier today, SpaceX launched to the International Space Station (ISS) with a fresh crew of NASA astronauts, and will bring NASA’s Boeing test crew home next week.
NASA’s Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams launched on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft last summer June 5, 2024, atop a ULA Atlas V rocket. It was the first crewed flight test for the spacecraft, to validate and certify it for operational missions for NASA.
NASA’s Boeing Starliner test crew has been on the ISS for 9 months
However, on the way to the ISS their Boeing spacecraft experienced helium leaks and thruster problems. A mission that was supposed to last a week turned into weeks, and into months. Boeing and NASA got to work trying to understand the root cause and predict when the issues could happen again.
Eventually, NASA decided to leave the crew safe on the ISS, and asked SpaceX to bring them home on an upcoming NASA crew mission. Starliner returned to Earth just fine, however Boeing has work to do before NASA has confidence in Starliner for another crew. There has been no update since the end of that mission in Sep 2024.
Four new astronauts headed to ISS
Currently en route to the ISS on Dragon are NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. They are scheduled to dock autonomously to the ISS at 11:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 15.
You can watch that live starting at 9:45 p.m., March 15, on NASA+ with rendezvous, docking, and hatching opening.
“Congratulations to our NASA and SpaceX teams on the 10th crew rotation mission under our commercial crew partnership. This milestone demonstrates NASA’s continued commitment to advancing American leadership in space and driving growth in our national space economy,” said NASA acting Administrator Janet Petro.
“Through these missions, we are laying the foundation for future exploration, from low Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars. Our international crew will contribute to innovative science research and technology development, delivering benefits to all humanity.”
Williams and Wilmore set to Return to Earth March 19
Williams and Wilmore are finally expected to return home on March 19. They will be joined by Crew-9 NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Don Pettit.
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