Astronauts launch to the space station after sidelined by Boeing's troubled Starliner
The U.S.-Japanese-Russian crew of four rocketed from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. They'll replace colleagues who launched to the space station in March as fill-ins for NASA's two stuck astronauts.
Their SpaceX capsule should reach the orbiting lab this weekend and stay for at least six months.
Zena Cardman, a biologist and polar explorer who should have launched last year, was yanked along with another NASA crewmate to make room for Starliner's star-crossed test pilots.
The botched Starliner demo forced Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to switch to SpaceX to get back from the space station more than nine months after departing on what should have been a weeklong trip. Ensuring their safe return "meant stepping aside," Cardman said before her launch.
"Every astronaut wants to be in space. None of us want to stay on the ground, but it's not about me," said 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.
NASA's Mike Fincke — Cardman's co-pilot — was the backup for Wilmore and Williams on Starliner, making those three still the only ones certified to fly it. Fincke and Japan's Kimiya Yui, former military officers with previous spaceflight experience, were training for Starliner's second astronaut mission. With Starliner grounded until 2026, NASA switched the two to the latest SpaceX flight.
Rounding out the crew is Russia's Oleg Platonov. The former fighter pilot was pulled a few years ago from the Russian Soyuz flight lineup because of an undisclosed health issue that he said has since been resolved.
On hand for the first launch attempt on Thursday, NASA's new acting administrator, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, met with Roscosmos director general Dmitry Bakanov, an invited guest. The two discussed future collaboration, then left town after thick clouds forced a last-minute delay.
"What we learn on these missions is what's going to get us to the moon and then from the moon to Mars, which is I think the direction that NASA has to be," Duffy said in a NASA interview. "There's critical real estate on the moon. We want to claim that real estate for ourselves and our partners."
To save money in light of tight budgets, NASA is looking to increase its space station stays from six months to eight months, a move already adopted by Russia's space agency. SpaceX is close to certifying its Dragon capsules for longer flights, which means the newly launched crew could be up there until April.
NASA is also considering smaller crews — three astronauts launching on SpaceX instead of the typical four — to cut costs.
As for Starliner, NASA is leaning toward launching the next one with cargo before flying another crew.
Engineers are still investigating the thruster failures and helium leaks that bedeviled Starliner following liftoff. Time is running out as NASA looks to abandon the aging space station by 2030. An air leak on the Russian side of the station remains unresolved after years of patching.
"I am not in the least worried" about the leak, which is localized, Platonov said earlier this month.
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