NASA has removed the two female astronauts scheduled for the next flight to the International Space Station to make room for Boeing’s troubled spacecraft, after it was deemed too risky to return the crew from space.
Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson, who were to be SpaceX’s Crew 9 commanders, have been removed from the next crew. NASA astronaut Nick Hague, who was to serve as pilot, will take over as commander, with Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov accompanying the mission as a mission specialist.
The decision to reduce the SpaceX Dragon crew from four to two will free up two seats for the return journey of Boeing Starliner crew members Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who will return home with Hague and Gorbunov at the end of their scheduled rotation in February 2025.
The long and troubled history of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft
NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov will be the only two people flying to the International Space Station in SpaceX’s Crew 9 capsule this September.
Credit: SpaceX
Veteran astronauts Wilmore and Williams had been suspended 250 miles above Earth this summer while NASA leadership and Boeing mission managers debated whether it was safe to return them to Earth on the Starliner. During a test flight in June, the crew discovered a mysterious problem with the Starliner’s propulsion.
Their stay in space was originally supposed to last eight days, but it ended up lasting eight months.
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NASA chief astronaut Joe Acaba said deciding who to keep and who to bring on the SpaceX Dragon flight was a tough decision, as they had to balance choosing one experienced NASA astronaut to lead the flight with reserving seats for Roscosmos astronauts to maintain an integrated crew.
“Xena and Stephanie will continue to support the crew prior to launch,” Acaba said in a statement. “They are great examples of what it means to be a professional astronaut.”
The original SpaceX Crew-9. (From left: NASA astronaut Stephanie Wilson, Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov, and NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Zena Cardman.)
Credit: NASA / Bill Stafford / Robert Markowitz
Getting Starliner through the testing phase has been a relentless battle for Boeing, but company representatives Not always forthright Why has the program suffered so many setbacks? The problems have been going on for a decade.
After the Space Shuttle was retired in 2011, NASA relied on Russian rockets to ferry all of its space shuttles to the space station, at a cost to the U.S. of tens of millions of dollars per launch. Some saw this as a national embarrassment.
NASA asked Boeing and SpaceX in 2014 to build commercial spacecraft to ferry astronauts to the station. SpaceX’s capsule began operations four years ago, but Boeing’s Starliner has yet to be certified for scheduled flights. NASA didn’t intend to put all its eggs in space. Elon Muskbasket, and said the Starliners remain important as backups.
Starliner docked at the International Space Station.
Credit: NASA
If the weather is good, Starliner is undocked It will depart uncrewed from the space station on Sept. 6, and attempt a robotic landing in the New Mexico desert about six hours later, just before midnight on Sept. 7. SpaceX’s Crew 9 capsule carrying Hague and Gorbunov is scheduled to launch on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on or before Sept. 24.
NASA said Cardman and Wilson will be eligible for reassignment on future missions.
