After a year of delays due to Boeing’s Starliner issues, astronauts have finally launched to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a SpaceX rocket on Friday.
The four-member crew, consisting of astronauts from the US, Japan, and Russia, departed from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre. They will be replacing the team sent to the ISS in March as temporary replacements for NASA’s two astronauts initially scheduled for the Starliner mission.
Their SpaceX Dragon capsule is expected to dock with the ISS this weekend, where they will remain for at least six months.
Zena Cardman, a biologist and polar explorer who was originally slated to launch last year, was removed from the mission, along with another NASA crew member, to accommodate Boeing’s Starliner test pilots.
The failed Starliner demonstration mission required Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to utilize SpaceX for their return from the ISS, which occurred more than nine months after their initial departure for a mission planned to last only a week.
Ms. Cardman stated prior to her launch that ensuring their safe return “meant stepping aside.”
“Every astronaut wants to be in space. None of us want to stay on the ground, but it’s not about me,” said Ms. Cardman, the flight commander.
Even after launch, “things can change at the last minute, so I’ll count myself very fortunate when the hatch opens (to the space station),” she added.
NASA’s Mike Fincke – Ms. Cardman’s co-pilot – served as the back-up for Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams on the Starliner mission, making them the only three individuals certified to fly it.
Mr. Fincke and Kimiya Yui from Japan, both former military officers with prior spaceflight experience, were in training for Starliner’s second astronaut mission. Due to the Starliner grounding until 2026, NASA reassigned them to the current SpaceX flight.
The crew also includes Russia’s Oleg Platonov, a former fighter pilot who was previously removed from the Russian Soyuz flight line-up due to an undisclosed medical issue, which he reports has since been resolved.
In an effort to reduce costs due to budget constraints, NASA is considering extending space station stays from six months to eight months, a practice already implemented by the Russian space agency.
SpaceX is nearing certification for its Dragon capsules to handle longer duration flights, potentially meaning the newly launched crew could remain on the ISS until April.
Meanwhile, Russia’s space chief has visited the United States to discuss continued collaboration between Moscow and Washington on the ISS and lunar research with NASA’s acting chief. This marks the first in-person meeting between the two in over seven years.
Dmitry Bakanov, director of the state space corporation Roscosmos, met with NASA’s new acting administrator, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, while attending the crew launch to the space station.
Roscosmos stated that Mr. Bakanov and Mr. Duffy discussed “further work on the International Space Station, co-operation on lunar programmes, joint exploration of deep space and continued co-operation on other space projects.”
