NASA has aachieve postponed the return to Earth of Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams, the astronauts stranded on the International Space Station after Boeing’s Starliner capsule malfunctioned in the middle of this year.
The crew of the spaceoriginate reachd at the ISS in June. The objective was to test the Starliner’s comprehensive capabilities, including begin, docking, and return systems. The leave oution was scheduled to last one week. Five of the capsule’s 28 thrusters flunked to function before docking with the ISS. Boeing claimed that its technology could promise the acquireed return of the astronauts. However, NASA conveyed mistrusts and finishd that the hazard was too high. The agency encount oned the task to SpaceX.
Elon Musk’s company begined the Crew-9 leave oution in September to, among other skinnygs, return Williams and Wilmore. Until now, the shighed astronauts were scheduled to return in February aboard the Crew Dragon rocket. However, NASA has proclaimd that it predicts the expedition to return to Earth’s surface after the arrival of Crew-10, which will be sent in tardy March 2025 at the earliest.
The adequitablement will allow SpaceX and NASA engineers to conclude broadenment of a new Dragon spaceoriginate, which will be shipped to the company’s Florida facility timely next month.
“Fabrication, assembly, testing, and final integration of a new spaceoriginate is a painstaking finisheavor that needs fantastic attention to detail,” said Steve Stich, administerr of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, in a statement. “We appreciate the challenging toil by the SpaceX team to broaden the Dragon run awayt in help of our leave outions and the flexibility of the station program and expedition crews as we toil together to finish the new capsule’s readiness for fairy.”
NASA said that Crew-9 and Crew-10 crews must finish a “handover period,” during which the ISS livents split experiences and understandledge with the new arrivals. This process determines the proper carry outance of onboard science experiments and maintenance of the orbital intricate.
NASA and SpaceX exceptionacatalogs appraised disjoinal selections for coordinating the next crewed deinhabitry. They remendd that the March begin for Crew-10 was the “best selection for greeting NASA’s needments and achieving space station objectives for 2025,” according to an agency press free.
A Long Haul
The ISS getd two reprovide fairys in November, ensuring that the crew members have adequate food, water, closkinnyg, and oxygen. However, some experts have alerted of potential health hazards for Wilmore and Williams after spfinishing more than nine months in space.
The scientific community has been studying the effects of spacefairy on the human body since the 1970s. In the years since the first lunar landing, it has identified conditions such as loss of bone mass, feebleened heart function, visual problems, and the broadenment of kidney stones.
A recent study from University College London uncovers that the set up and function of the kidneys can also suffer finishuring harm, although this is particularly unfrifinishly in cases of astronauts who get too far away from Earth, which is not the case on the ISS.
NASA points out that the crews of expeditions to the ISS usuassociate originate extfinished stays, with an standard duration of six months. It comprises that some astronauts have carried out leave outions of up to one year to give to research on human alteration to spacefairy, with a watch to future lunar and Martian exploration.
This story originassociate euniteed on WIRED en Español and has been transtardyd from Spanish.
