An eight-day mission to space will stretch to at least 10 months for NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore as their return to Earth has once again been delayed.
Williams and Wilmore will remain on the International Space Station until March or possibly April, The Associated Press reported.
Their mission launched on June 5 on board Boeing’s Starliner capsule. It was the first flight for the spacecraft to take astronauts to the ISS, but there were several helium leaks and other issues with the capsule, so NASA decided to return it to Earth without the crew. That left them on an extended mission on board the space station.
SpaceX Crew-9 Dragon capsule was sent to the ISS in September with a two-man crew and two empty seats for Williams’ and Wilmore’s return, CBS News reported.
That return trip was scheduled for February but NASA announced on Tuesday that the astronauts will instead return to Earth once SpaceX Crew-10 gets there. That mission will launch in late March at the earliest, delivering Wilmore’s and Williams’ replacements to the space station.
NASA’s SpaceX #Crew10 now is targeting no earlier than late March 2025 to launch four crew members to @Space_Station.
— NASA Commercial Crew (@Commercial_Crew) December 17, 2024
The change gives NASA and SpaceX time to complete processing on a new Dragon spacecraft for the mission, set to arrive in early January: https://t.co/3y1zvsyGMr pic.twitter.com/wJxfV89SAR
But the pair of astronauts won’t hop on the capsule and make their return trip immediately. NASA officials said there would be an overlap of crews to ensure a smooth transition.
The handover “allows Crew-9 to share any lessons learned with the newly arrived crew and support a better transition for ongoing science and maintenance at the complex,” NASA said, according to CBS News.
Wilmore and Williams have been busy on the space station. Recently they worked on installing new exercise gear on board the space station, NASA said.
They also conducted more than 60 scientific experiments including making the first metal 3D print on the station and developing a way to water and aerate plants in reduced gravity, The Washington Post reported last month.
Williams celebrated Christmas a bit early with Don Pettit while speaking on a ham radio in one of the station’s labs.
Another day, another sleigh ⛄️❄️@NASA_Astronauts Don Pettit and Suni Williams pose for a fun holiday season portrait while speaking on a ham radio inside the @Space_Station's Columbus laboratory module. pic.twitter.com/C1PtjkUk7P
— NASA's Johnson Space Center (@NASA_Johnson) December 16, 2024
Williams said that while she misses her family, friends and pets, she said space is her “happy place” the Post reported last month.
She also said that being military she and Wilmore are used to being flexible when it comes to the job.
“We’re both Navy, we’ve both been on deployments, we’re not surprised when deployments get changed … our families are used to that as well,” she said according to the newspaper.
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