SpaceX aborts rocket launch to retrieve stranded NASA astronauts who are still stranded in space
NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Barry 'Butch' Wilmore continue to stay in space beyond their planned return date. The pair have been stuck at the space station since June 2024, when they departed for what was intended to be a seven-day mission. A retrieval rocket was scheduled to take off yesterday (March 12). However, the launch never took place, with Elon Musk's company SpaceX announcing at the last moment that it had canceled its plans. The company reported a problem with the hydraulic system at the launch location. SpaceX clarified that the issue affected the launch tower rather than the spacecraft itself. The rescheduled launch is now set for Friday.
SpaceX will transport four additional astronauts to the International Space Station during Williams and Wilmore's retrieval: Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, Takuya Onishi, and Kirill Peskov. In a statement about the delayed Crew-10 Mission posted on their website, SpaceX announced: "SpaceX and NASA are aiming for no earlier than Friday, March 14 for Falcon 9's launch of Dragon's 10th operational human spaceflight mission (Crew-10) to the International Space Station from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida."
The company added: "Launch is targeted for 7:03 p.m. ET, with a backup opportunity available on Saturday, March 15 at 6:41 p.m. ET. SpaceX's live webcast of this mission will begin about one hour and 20 minutes prior to liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX. You can also watch the webcast on the new X TV app."
The statement continued: "The Dragon spacecraft supporting this mission previously flew NASA's Crew-3, Crew-5, and Crew-7 missions to and from the space station. This will be the second flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched the SES 03b mPOWER-e mission. Following stage separation, Falcon 9's first stage will land on Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station."
While SpaceX will bring Williams and Wilmore back to Earth, they initially traveled to space in a Boeing Starliner capsule back in June. Their assignment was planned to last only a few days, but after the Boeing capsule experienced technical difficulties following their safe arrival at the ISS, it became unsafe for the vehicle to transport the two astronauts home.
More precisely, the Starliner experienced several helium propulsion system leaks and multiple maneuvering jets that failed to generate the expected thrust, according to CBS News. NASA then conducted testing for many weeks to assess if the capsule could safely transport Wilmore and Williams back to Earth. Though Boeing executives believed the Starliner could return the two astronauts safely, NASA disagreed with this assessment, resulting in their extended stay in space.
