NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore's mission on the International Space Station has been extended due to a delay in launching their replacements. The two test pilots are now expected to remain in orbit until the end of March or April.
Two test pilots, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, whose space mission was initially planned to last a week or so, just got their stay on the International Space Station extended again. This means they won't be back on Earth until spring, 10 months after rocketing into orbit on June 5th on Boeing 's first astronaut flight. Their mission grew from eight days to eight months after NASA decided to send the company's problem-plagued Starliner capsule back empty in September.
Now, the pair won't return until the end of March or even April because of a delay in launching their replacements. A fresh crew needs to launch before Wilmore and Williams can return, and the next mission has been bumped more than a month, according to NASA. NASA's next crew of four was supposed to launch in February, followed by Wilmore and Williams' return home by the end of that month alongside two other astronauts. But SpaceX needs more time to prepare the brand new capsule for liftoff. That launch is now scheduled for no earlier than late March. NASA said it considered using a different SpaceX capsule to fly up the replacement crew in order to keep the flights on schedule. But it decided the best option was to wait for the new capsule to transport the next crew. NASA prefers to have overlapping crews at the space station for a smoother transition, according to officials
International Space Station NASA Astronauts Space Mission Boeing
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