WATCH:<\/strong> Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore on their longer than expected stay in space<\/a><\/p>\nTheir SpaceX capsule should reach the orbiting lab this weekend and stay for at least six months.<\/p>\n
Zena Cardman, a biologist and polar explorer who should have launched last year, was\u00a0yanked\u00a0along with another NASA crewmate to make room for Starliner\u2019s star-crossed test pilots.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no emotion but joy right now. That was absolutely transcendent. Ride of a lifetime,\u201d Cardman, the flight commander, said after reaching orbit.<\/p>\n
The botched Starliner demo forced Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to switch to SpaceX to get back from the space station more than nine months after departing on what should have been a weeklong trip.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery astronaut wants to be in space. None of us want to stay on the ground, but it\u2019s not about me,\u201d Cardman said before her flight.<\/p>\n
NASA\u2019s Mike Fincke \u2014 Cardman\u2019s co-pilot \u2014 was the backup for Wilmore and Williams on Starliner, making those three still the only ones certified to fly it. Fincke and Japan\u2019s Kimiya Yui, former military officers with previous spaceflight experience, were training for Starliner\u2019s second astronaut mission. With Starliner grounded until 2026, NASA switched the two to the latest SpaceX flight.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoy, it\u2019s great to be back in orbit again,\u201d Fincke radioed. He last soared on NASA\u2019s next-to-last space shuttle flight in 2011.<\/p>\n
Rounding out the crew is Russia\u2019s Oleg Platonov. The former fighter pilot was pulled a few years ago from the Russian Soyuz flight lineup because of an undisclosed health issue that he said has since been resolved.<\/p>\n
On hand for the first launch attempt on Thursday, NASA\u2019s new acting administrator, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, met with Roscosmos director general Dmitry Bakanov, an invited guest. The two discussed future collaboration, then left town after thick clouds forced a last-minute delay.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we learn on these missions is what\u2019s going to get us to the moon and then from the moon to Mars, which is I think the direction that NASA has to be,\u201d Duffy said in a NASA interview. \u201cThere\u2019s critical real estate on the moon. We want to claim that real estate for ourselves and our partners.\u201d<\/p>\n
To save money in light of tight budgets, NASA is looking to increase its space station stays from six months to eight months, a move already adopted by Russia\u2019s space agency. SpaceX is close to certifying its Dragon capsules for longer flights, which means the newly launched crew could be up there until April.<\/p>\n
NASA is also considering smaller crews \u2014 three astronauts launching on SpaceX instead of the typical four \u2014 to cut costs.<\/p>\n
As for Starliner, NASA is leaning toward launching the next one with cargo before flying another crew.<\/p>\n
Engineers are still investigating the thruster failures and helium leaks that bedeviled Starliner following liftoff. Time is running out as NASA looks to abandon the aging space station by 2030. An air leak on the Russian side of the station remains unresolved after years of patching.<\/p>\n
Engineering teams already are working on the plan for the space station\u2019s last days.<\/p>\n
NASA\u2019s Ken Bowersox said the U.S. and Russia need to cooperate in order to steer the outpost into the Pacific with minimal risk to the public.<\/p>\n
It will take at least two years to get the space station low enough to where a SpaceX vehicle can provide the final shove. Thrusters on the Russian side of the station will help with control, but that means more fuel will have to be delivered by 2028.<\/p>\n
The latest timeline calls for SpaceX to launch the last mission for NASA \u2014 the deorbit vehicle \u2014 to the space station in 2029. Astronauts would remain on board until the last four to six months of the station\u2019s life to handle any breakdowns, with the empty outpost plunging into the Pacific by late 2030 or early 2031.<\/p>\n
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute\u2019s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.<\/p>\n
\n We’re not going anywhere.\n <\/p>\n
\n Stand up for truly independent, trusted news that you can count on!\n <\/p>\n
\n Donate now<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Astronauts sidelined for the past year by\u00a0Boeing\u2019s Starliner trouble\u00a0blasted off to the\u00a0International Space…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":112519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[159,783,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-112518","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114958263061590538","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}