NASA announced Friday that the next SpaceX mission to the International Space Station will send just two astronauts, instead of the four originally planned, allowing the two people still stranded aboard the ISS to return in February.
The authorities had a problem Boeing Starliner Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore returned to the space station uncrewed in June after their capsule was plagued by thruster problems and a helium leak.
NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov are scheduled to launch to the space station at the end of September.
NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson were removed from the mission to allow Williams and Wilmore time to make the return flight, and NASA said Cardman and Wilson are eligible to be redeployed to a future mission.
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NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov are due to launch to the International Space Station next month without the other two crew members. (NASA)
“The decision to fly Hague was made by NASA Chief Astronaut Joe Acaba at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston,” NASA said in a press release on Friday. “Acaba had to strike a balance between ensuring that the NASA crew in command had spaceflight experience while also ensuring NASA maintained an integrated crew with Roscosmos astronauts who could operate critical systems for continued and safe space station operations.”
Acaba said that while astronaut crew changes have happened before, this was a “difficult decision to adapt to” given that the crew had been trained as a four-person team.
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This photo provided by SpaceX shows, from left, Russia's Alexander Gorbunov and NASA's Nick Hague, Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, on May 6, 2024. (SpaceX via The Associated Press)
“I have the utmost confidence in the entire crew, who have done an outstanding job throughout mission training. Zena and Stephanie continue to support their fellow crew members prior to launch and exemplify what it means to be a professional astronaut.”
The US has relied on Russia to transport astronauts to the ISS since the space shuttle program ended in 2011. The decision was made after the space shuttle Columbia broke apart on re-entry into the atmosphere in 2003, killing all seven astronauts on board.
SpaceX will begin ferrying astronauts to the space station on rockets in 2020.
The Boeing Starliner launched in June. The capsule has been plagued by thruster problems and helium leaks. (Joel Kowski/NASA via Getty Images)
“I am incredibly proud of the entire crew,” Cardman said in a statement. “I am confident that Nick and Alex will be up to the task. All four of us are committed to the success of this mission, and Stephanie and I look forward to flying when the time is right.”
“I am confident that Nick and Alex will do a great job aboard the International Space Station as part of Expedition 72,” Wilson added.
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Haig, an active-duty colonel in the U.S. Space Force, has three launches under his belt, including two to the ISS. During his first launch in 2018, he and another astronaut successfully re-entered the spacecraft after a rocket booster failure. This will be Gorbunov's first spaceflight.
