NASA will call on SpaceX to bring home two astronauts who have been stuck on the International Space Station since early June after their Boeing spacecraft ran into several problems midflight, the agency said Saturday.
While the agency has finally settled on how to bring the astronauts back, their return trip will not be immediate.
Instead, Wilmore and Williams will remain at the space station for about six more months before flying home in February.
NASA said it will free up two seats on an upcoming SpaceX launch, known as Crew-9, that will be taking a new rotation of space station crew members to the orbiting outpost.
The beleaguered Starliner capsule, meanwhile, will journey back to Earth without a crew, likely sometime in early September, according to NASA.
Persons:
Butch Wilmore, Suni Williams, Butch, Suni, Bill Nelson, Williams, Nelson, NASA’s
Organizations:
NASA, SpaceX, Space Station, Boeing, Spaceflight, Space, Wilmore, Space Center, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center
Locations:
Houston, Florida