NASA Alters Timelines To Expedite Return Of Astronauts Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore Stranded At Space Station For Over 8 Months

NASA said on Tuesday that it intends to return astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who went to the space station on Boeing Co‘s BA Starliner spacecraft in June, earlier than expected.

What Happened: The space agency said that it is now targeting Wednesday, March 12 for the launch of its Crew-10 mission to the space station.

Following a few days’ handover period where crew-9 astronauts will familiarize the newly arrived crew-10 with ongoing science and station maintenance work, crew-9 will return to Earth with NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft.

The return of crew-9, however, will also rely on weather conditions at the dragon spacecraft’s splashdown site off the coast of Florida, NASA said.

Starliner Issues Prolong Return: Williams and Wilmore launched to the International Space Station aboard Starliner spacecraft in June and were supposed to return in about eight days.

However, technical issues identified with the spacecraft while docking delayed a return, and the space agency subsequently decided to scrap bringing back the two astronauts on the Starliner spacecraft.

The Starliner subsequently returned without the astronauts on Sept. 6. The two astronauts, NASA then said, will return with Crew 9 members Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov when they return home aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

The two astronauts have been up at the station for over eight months now.

Why It Matters: Crew-10 was previously slated to launch by late March and the return of crew-9 was expected a few days after. However, the agency has now decided to rely on a Dragon spacecraft which was used previously instead of using a new one which would take additional processing time.

"Human spaceflight is full of unexpected challenges. Our operational flexibility is enabled by the tremendous partnership between NASA and SpaceX and the agility SpaceX continues to demonstrate to safely meet the agency's emerging needs," said Steve Stich, manager, of NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said last month that President Trump has asked SpaceX to return the two astronauts stranded at the space station “as soon as possible.”

Musk, a close ally to Trump, also accused the Biden administration of leaving the astronauts on the space station “so long.”

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