NASA astronauts ‘Sunita Williams’ and ‘Butch Wilmore’, who have been stranded aboard the International Space Station (ISS) due to the Boeing’s faulty Starliner capsule, are expected to return earlier than scheduled, following a rescheduling decision by NASA. According to the media reports, NASA has moved up the return timeline following swapping the spacecraft originally planned for an upcoming routine flight to the ISS.
Initially, the Crew-10 mission, set to launch on March 25, will now take off on March 12. This change allows for the earlier return of Williams and Wilmore, who have been on the ISS far longer than planned. NASA announced that it has decided to use a previously flown SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, named ‘Endeavour’, for the Crew-10 mission, instead of a new SpaceX capsule that faced production delays.
The agency will conduct a readiness assessment of Endeavour, which has previously flown on three missions. Since June 2003, Williams and Wilmore have been aboard the ISS following Boeing’s Starliner capsule faced technical failures. Initially, their mission was expected to last only one week, but repeated delays extended their stay. The decision comes following former U.S. President Donald Trump publicly called on SpaceX CEO Elon Musk last month to bring the astronauts home “as soon as possible.”
While NASA had already planned the return, US President Donald Trump blamed President Joe Biden for the delay. Musk also criticized Biden, even though SpaceX has been working with NASA to resolve the situation.
The Crew-10 spacecraft swap has also impacted SpaceX’s Fram2 private astronaut mission, which was set to use the Endeavour capsule for a polar-orbiting mission later in 2025. NASA has assured that the astronauts will return “as soon as practical.” However, the exact return date for Williams and Wilmore has yet to be confirmed.
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