NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore are finally set to return to Earth. They have been stranded on the International Space Stations for the last nine months. The mission launched on 5 June 2024 for a 10-day flight test abroad of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. The duo faced a series of technical glitches with their capsule that resulted in an extended stay on the ISS. Last year in September, the Starliner came back to Earth without its crew, prompting NASA to come up with other alternative arrangements.
Responding to the delayed return, NASA launched the SpaceX Cew-9 mission in August 2024. This mission includes two NASA astronauts, Nick Hague and Roscomo cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbnow. Two seats onboard were reserved for Willams and Wilmore. The four astronauts were supposed to initially return in February.
But now NASA has finally cleared a relief crew to launch on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, set for next week to bring both astronauts back to the Earth. The purpose of the Crew Dragon spacecraft was to bring them back to Earth.
As said by NASA’s ISS program manager, the Crew-9 was launched with two astronauts; it was sensible to accommodate Williams and Wilmore for the long-duration mission.
Now, NASA’s Crew-10 mission is scheduled for March 12. It will be launched from the Kennedy Space Center to carry the astronauts Nichole Ayers, Takuya Onishi, Anne McClain, and Kirill Paskov. Due to delays in new spacecraft construction, the mission will use the Endurance capsule rather than a new Crew Dragon.
As per the NASA officials, the swap to endurance was in motion before any public comments, mentioning that such delays are common. The Crew-9 and Crew-10 missions are the parts of NASA’s Commercial Crew Programs.
