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NASA says two people have been cut from the Crew-9 mission team to make room for the Starliner astronauts stranded on the International Space Station.
Astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson will stay on the ground and are “eligible for reassignment” to another spaceflight, NASA said. Nick Hague and Russia’s Aleksandr Gorbunov will carry on.
Chief astronaut Joe Acaba decided the mission needed an experienced commander in Hague, who has visited the ISS twice. At the same time, Acaba wanted an “integrated crew” with a cosmonaut who could operate critical Russian equipment aboard the station.
#Crew9 crew announcement:@NASA_Astronauts Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov will launch no earlier than Sept. 24, on the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission to @Space_Station.
Hague and Gorbunov will fly to the space station as commander and mission specialist,… pic.twitter.com/AtNyPyvwVC
— NASA Commercial Crew (@Commercial_Crew) August 30, 2024
The mission update makes sure Starliner astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams can return to Earth aboard the Crew-9 capsule in February 2025. NASA and Boeing had hoped to bring them back aboard Starliner, but safety concerns about the vehicle persisted and led to the decision to use SpaceX’s Crew Dragon instead.
Starliner will splash down on Earth autonomously. Crew-9 is expected to launch in September.
Cardman said she was “confident” Hague and Gorbunov would fare well, while Wilson said she was sure those remaining astronauts would “do a great job.” Both will help their crewmates from Earth.
The crew shuffle was expected given the limited capacity in a Crew Dragon spacecraft, but it’s still potentially embarrassing for Boeing. The company has already dealt with years of delays and technical problems. Now, NASA has to limit the Crew-9 team size in response to Starliner’s issues.
The space agency is still committed to Boeing as part of its Commercial Crew Program. However, it has increasingly had to lean on SpaceX for crewed spaceflights, and it’s not clear when Starliner will be ready to shoulder some of the responsibilities.
