NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) since June 2024, could return to Earth sooner than the current schedule, the space agency has said.
According to NASA, SpaceX will switch capsules for upcoming astronaut flights, saving at least a couple of weeks from the schedule for their return, NASA's commercial crew programme manager Steve Stich said.
This would mean that Williams and Wilmore could be back on Earth by mid-March instead of the late March or April window NASA had in place.
The Crew-10 launch, which was planned for 25 March, is now targeting a 12 March lift-off, pending mission readiness and completion of the agency's certification of the flight readiness process.
The Crew-10 mission will carry NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov to the space station.
The Crew-9 mission, consisting of Williams, Wilmore, NASA astronaut Nick Hague, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, is planned for return to Earth following a several-day handover period with the newly arrived Crew-10 crew.
Last month, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said that US President Donald Trump had asked him to bring the two NASA astronauts back as soon as possible.
Williams and Wilmore were the test crew members of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft's first manned mission, which was launched on 5 June 2024. The space mission, which was originally scheduled to be completed in a week, got delayed first by days and then by weeks after NASA expressed concerns over the Starliner's ability to return to Earth safely.
This resulted in NASA abandoning the plan to bring Williams and Wilmore back to Earth on the Starliner and their space mission getting extended by months. Last week, Williams and Wilmore completed eight months on the ISS.
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