Nine months and at least a few additional days. The two American astronauts wedged in space since June 2024 will still have to wait a bit before hoping to find the land after the postponement, Wednesday, March 12, of the launch of the habid NASA mission which was to come and seek them in the International Space Station (ISS).
The launch of the SpaceX vessel was scheduled for Wednesday at 7:48 p.m. local time on Wednesday (0:48 a.m. in Paris, Thursday) from Cap Canaveral, Florida, but was canceled about 45 minutes before departure, due to a technical problem.
“While we carried out each of the checks (before launch), we noticed that there was a problem with the hydraulic system of the clamping”explained NASA, adding that “Everything was fine with the rocket and the spaceship itself”. A new departure date for the mission has not yet been communicated, but the American aviation regulator said that new launch windows will open on Thursday and Friday.
Initially left for an eight -day mission, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, two space veterans, are blocked on the ISS due to failures on the Boeing Starliner vessel that had sent them. Their journey recently took a political turning point, President Donald Trump and his great ally Elon Musk accusing the administration of ex-president Joe Biden of having voluntarily abandoned them to their fate. The multimillionaire, patron of Space X, has been responsible since the summer of 2024 by NASA to make their return, but recently assured that he could have rescued them a long time ago, without however specifying how.
Spatial collaboration between the United States and Russia continues
His space company sent a Crew Dragon vessel at the end of September to the ISS with only an American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut on board – instead of the four passengers initially planned – in order to leave room for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. The latter are now awaiting the arrival of the CREW-10 mission.
The new crew that was to take off on Wednesday consisted of two NASA astronauts, Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, a Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi Onishi and a new Russian cosmonaut, Kirill Peskov. Despite the war in Ukraine, the United States and Russia have continued its collaboration in the space in recent years, with the sending of Russian cosmonauts via SpaceX and American astronauts by Russian Silouz rockets during rotation missions of the ISS crew.
It is in this context that this new mission is written. Its participants will be responsible for carrying out many scientific and technological experiences in the space laboratory.
A record not yet broken
After a few days awarded period between the two crews, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams had to return to Earth alongside the American Nick Hague and the Russian Alexandre Gorbounov of Crew-9.
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If their stay in space has emerged, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have not yet exceeded the record of the American astronaut Frank Rubio. The latter had lived 371 days aboard the ISS in 2023, instead of six months initially planned, due to a cooling liquid leak aboard the Russian spacecraft provided for its return.
“We had prepared to stay for a long time, even if we thought they were very little”recently said Butch Wilmore, ensuring that it was the “Reason itself” of their training: “Prepare for all eventualities and unforeseen events”.