Boeing Starliner’s affect on Crew-8’s return
The Crew-Eight astronauts launched into area on March three and remained in area longer than anticipated.
Among the many roadblocks for his or her return to Earth have been schedule adjustments associated to points with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, which had carried NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the area station on a check flight in early June however was deemed too dangerous to return its crew again to Earth.
NASA in the end selected to ship again the Boeing spacecraft empty and kraken7 moved Starliner’s astronauts onto the SpaceX Crew-9 mission, delaying the launch of that mission. That schedule adjustment in flip delayed Crew-8’s return as a result of Crew-9 needed to arrive on the orbiting laboratory for a handoff of duties earlier than Crew-Eight may disembark.
Climate delays additionally pushed Crew-8’s return into late October.
Whereas the 235-day mission was a number of weeks longer than routine journeys to the orbiting outpost, it’s not a record-setting keep in area for the astronauts.
Astronauts generally lengthen their keep aboard the area station for days, weeks and even months as sudden occasions come up.
NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, for instance, logged a document 371 days in area throughout a mission that concluded in September 2023. Rubio’s keep was prolonged after his authentic journey to low-Earth orbit — a Russian Soyuz capsule — sprang a coolant leak whereas docked to the area station.
