A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with a crew of two astronauts, lifts off from launch pad 40 on the Cape Canaveral Area Pressure Station Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photograph/Chris O’Meara)
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a crew of two lifts off from launch pad 40 on the Cape Canaveral Area Pressure Station Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024 at Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photograph/John Raoux)
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with a crew of two astronauts, lifts off from launch pad 40 on the Cape Canaveral Area Pressure Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photograph/Chris O’Meara)
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with a crew of two astronauts, lifts off from launch pad 40 on the Cape Canaveral Area Pressure Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photograph/Chris O’Meara)
SpaceX capsule Dragon approaches the Worldwide Area Station, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. (NASA by way of AP)
SpaceX capsule Dragon approaches the Worldwide Area Station, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. (NASA by way of AP)
SpaceX capsule Dragon carries NASA’s Nick Hague and the Russian Area Company’s Alexander Gorbunov to dock on the Worldwide Area Station, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. (NASA by way of AP)
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a crew of two lifts off from launch pad 40 on the Cape Canaveral Area Pressure Station Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024 at Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photograph/John Raoux)
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with a crew of two astronauts, lifts off from launch pad 40 on the Cape Canaveral Area Pressure Station Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photograph/Chris O’Meara)
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with a crew of two astronauts, lifts off from launch pad 40 on the Cape Canaveral Area Pressure Station Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photograph/Chris O’Meara)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The 2 astronauts stuck at the International Space Station since June welcomed their new experience house with Sunday’s arrival of a SpaceX capsule.
SpaceX launched the rescue mission on Saturday with a downsized crew of two astronauts and two empty seats reserved for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who will return subsequent 12 months. The Dragon capsule docked in darkness as the 2 craft soared 265 miles (426 kilometers) above Botswana.
NASA switched Wilmore and Williams to SpaceX following issues over the security of their Boeing Starliner capsule. It was the primary Starliner check flight with a crew, and NASA determined the thruster failures and helium leaks that cropped up after liftoff have been too critical and poorly understood to threat the check pilots’ return. So Starliner returned to Earth empty earlier this month.
The Dragon carrying NASA’s Nick Hague and the Russian Area Company’s Alexander Gorbunov will stay on the house station till February, turning what ought to have been a weeklong journey for Wilmore and Williams right into a mission lasting greater than eight months.
Two NASA astronauts have been pulled from the mission to make room for Wilmore and Williams on the return leg.
NASA likes to exchange its station crews each six months or so. SpaceX has offered the taxi service for the reason that firm’s first astronaut flight in 2020. NASA additionally employed Boeing for ferry flights after the house shuttles have been retired, however flawed software program and different Starliner points led to years of delays and greater than $1 billion in repairs.
Starliner inspections are underway at NASA’s Kennedy Area Middle, with post-flight evaluations of information set to start this week.
“We’re a good distance from saying, ‘Hey, we’re writing off Boeing,’” NASA’s affiliate administrator Jim Free stated at a pre-launch briefing.
The arrival of two contemporary astronauts means the 4 who’ve been up there since March can now return to Earth in their very own SpaceX capsule in simply over every week. Their keep was prolonged a month due to the Starliner turmoil.
Though Saturday’s liftoff went properly, SpaceX stated the rocket’s spent higher stage ended up exterior its focused impression zone within the Pacific due to a foul engine firing. The corporate has halted all Falcon launches till it figures out what went fallacious.
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The Related Press Well being and Science Division receives help from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Instructional Media Group. The AP is solely answerable for all content material.
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