NASA, SpaceX Delay Mission To Rescue Stranded Boeing Astronauts

NASA and Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX delayed a mission to the International Space Station that would have brought back stranded Boeing astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore. The pair boarded the ISS in June 2024 after launching to the station for what was meant to be an eight day trip to space.

Williams and Wilmore flew to the ISS aboard Boeing's Starliner craft, but problems emerged with the spaceship shortly after launch. Issues were uncovered with its engines and it was decided that it was safer to bring the craft back to Earth empty and leave the pair on the ISS until a new crew launched.

A replacement crew was due to launch to the ISS this morning onboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon mission. However, after company boss Elon Musk claimed SpaceX could have rescued the pair months ago, the launch was delayed, reports the BBC.

The recovery mission that will bring Williams and Wilmore back to Terra Firma was due to launch this morning, but was scrubbed by NASA after strong wind and rain hit the flight path of the rocket. The launch will now take place "no earlier than 7:03 p.m. EDT Friday, March 14," NASA explained in a recent post.

After the Crew Dragon capsule takes off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, it will dock with the ISS at 11:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 15. Once docked, a new crew will board the ISS and Williams and Wilmore will finally be able to fly home. On the trip back to Earth, they'll be joined by NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.

As it stands, NASA is targeting a return flight "no earlier than Wednesday, March 19," provided the weather conditions back on Earth are right for a safe splash landing. By this time, Williams and Wilmore will have spent 286 days in space.

This eye-watering stint in space is almost 280 days longer than Boeing initially planned for Williams and Wilmore, who were the first astronauts to fly to the ISS onboard Boeing's Starliner craft.

The pair's extended stay in space began back in June 2024 when they launched up to the space station on a test flight of Boeing's new craft. During the craft's approach to the ISS, six of its 28 thrusters stopped working, which forced NASA to delay the return flight to find out what went wrong. A week in space turned into a month while investigators dug into the cause, and during that time the cursed craft started making some pretty strange noises.

NASA ultimately decided it wasn't worth the risk to bring Williams and Wilmore back in Starliner, and the call was made to leave them on the ISS for a little longer where they have worked as regular astronauts ever since.