NASA considers calling on Elon Musk to rescue two astronauts... in 2025
The space agency assured that its intention is for the Starliner crew members to return in September. However, if problems with the spacecraft continue to occur, Wilmore and Williams could return to Earth via a SpaceX module.
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.
NASA recently stated that it is considering February 2025 as a possible return date for the two astronauts who departed Earth for the International Space Station on June 5, 2024, aboard the Starliner spacecraft. Faced with problems with the Boeing vehicle, the space agency is considering turning to a module from Elon Musk's SpaceX to return them to our planet.
Liftoff of the spacecraft has been postponed multiple times, mainly due to technical problems, but it was finally able to take off more than two months ago for a trip that, in principle, should have lasted a total of 21 days.
However, the astronauts have been there twice as long as stipulated and, worse, they may have to get used to living on the International Space Station until February 2025. So said NASA acting Associate Administrator for the Human Exploration Operations Mission Directorate Ken Bowersox in a press conference:
"We could take either path. We heard from a lot of folks that had concern [in a recent meeting], and the decision was not clear."
Bowersox said both Wilmore and Williams were aware of the risk in getting on the Starliner and that there could be problems during their stay on the International Space Station: "When we started this mission, it was a test mission. We knew that it potentially had a higher risk than a flight on a vehicle that has more experience, more flights on it. So we’re at the point now where we see additional risk that’s in a fairly broad uncertainty band. Depending on how much data and how much understanding you have, you might take a different view of where we are in that risk band."
So how will the astronauts return to Earth? As explained during the press conference, if the problems with Boeing's Starliner continue and it is not certain that Wilmore and Williams will return in September with the module (which would return to Earth empty), they would return in one of the spacecraft belonging to SpaceX, Elon Musk's aerospace company.
To that end, the space agency explained, both would become part of Crew 9 which, explains CNN, currently is scheduled to fly with four people in September of this year: NASA astronauts Zena Cardman, Nick Hague and Stephanie Wilson as well as Russian astronaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, belonging to space agency Roscosmos.
However, two of these four crew members would be left out of the mission as their places would be taken by Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams who, after nine months in space, could finally return home.
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