The 2 Nasa astronauts who’ve been caught in house since June due to technical points should stay on the Worldwide Area Station even longer – stretching a mission that was initially purported to final solely eight days to greater than 9 months.
On Tuesday, Nasa introduced that its astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, together with Russia’s cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, will return to Earth following the arrival of Crew-10 subsequent yr. Initially scheduled for a February launch, the house company has pushed again the Crew-10 mission’s launch date to no sooner than late March of 2025.
Based on Nasa, the change provides Nasa and SpaceX groups “time to finish processing on a brand new Dragon spacecraft for the mission”. The brand new spacecraft is now set to reach at Nasa’s processing facility in Florida in early January.
In June, Williams and Wilmore arrived on the ISS as a part of a take a look at by Boeing’s Starliner earlier than it could possibly obtain Nasa’s approval for routine flights. Nevertheless, as a result of a collection of technical points, together with response management thrusters that failed throughout Starliner’s first docking try, the 2 veteran astronauts’ return residence was closely delayed.
On Tuesday Nasa stated the ISS just lately obtained two resupply flights in November and is properly stocked with every part the present crew wants, together with meals, water, clothes and oxygen. The house company added that the resupply plane additionally carried particular objects for the crew to have fun the vacations aboard the orbital platform.
Explaining the delay, Nasa’s industrial crew program director Steve Stich stated: “Fabrication, meeting, testing, and closing integration of a brand new spacecraft is a painstaking endeavor that requires nice consideration to element.”
He added: “We admire the laborious work by the SpaceX workforce to broaden the Dragon fleet in assist of our missions and the flexibleness of the station program and expedition crews as we work collectively to finish the brand new capsule’s readiness for flight.”
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