NASA officials announced on Saturday that the troubled Boeing Starliner spacecraft that shuttled two astronauts to space in June will return to Earth without them. It’s too dangerous for people.
No one can dock with the ISS until the Boeing Starliner lemon leaves.
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are stuck in space until February. They’ve been onboard for 80 days instead of the seven originally planned.
They will now return with a SpaceX Crew-9 Dragon mission, which will not launch before Sept. 24. That mission needs to reduce its crew of four to two to make room for the stranded astronauts, who are expected to return in February 2025. The Crew-9 mission will carry additional cargo and Dragon-specific spacesuits for Wilmore and Williams, as their Boeing spacesuits are incompatible with the SpaceX spacecraft.
Starliner is expected to depart from the space station autonomously and land back on Earth in early September. It had multiple issues, including faulty thrusters, and could burn up in space.
We just gave and could burn up in space because we reward mediocrity.
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