Niamh Shackleton
It looks like astronauts Suni Williams and Barry 'Butch' Wilmore aren't coming home to Earth just yet.
The two NASA astronauts have been stranded in space since June 2024 when they set off on what was supposed to be a week-long mission.
A rocket to retrieve the pair was supposed to launch yesterday (March 12). However, said launch never happened and SpaceX, the space company owned by Elon Musk, made a last minute announcement saying that it had aborted its plans.
Reportedly, there was an issue hydraulic system on the launch side. SpaceX insist that the issue was not with the spacecraft itself however, but with the launch tower.
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The launch is now scheduled for Friday instead.
In the process of retrieving Williams and Wilmore, SpaceX is sending up another four astronauts to the International Space Station: Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, Takuya Onishi, and Kirill Peskov.
In an update shared to the SpaceX website about the recently-postponed Crew-10 Mission, the firm said: "SpaceX and NASA are targeting no earlier than Friday, March 14 for Falcon 9’s launch of Dragon’s 10th operational human spaceflight mission (Crew-10) to the International Space Station from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
"Launch is targeted for 7:03 p.m. ET, with a backup opportunity available on Saturday, March 15 at 6:41 p.m. ET.
"SpaceX’s live webcast of this mission will begin about one hour and 20 minutes prior to liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX. You can also watch the webcast on the new X TV app."
It went on: "The Dragon spacecraft supporting this mission previously flew NASA’s Crew-3, Crew-5, and Crew-7 missions to and from the space station. This will be the second flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched the SES 03b mPOWER-e mission. Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage will land on Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station."
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While it is a SpaceX spacecraft that's bringing Williams and Wilmore home, it was a Boeing Starliner capsule that first took them up to space back in June.
Their mission was only supposed to be a few days long, but after the Boeing capsule faced technical issues after safely getting them to the ISS, it meant it wasn't safe for it to bring the duo home.
More specifically, the Starliner experienced multiple helium propulsion system leaks and several maneuvering jets that did not produce the expected thrust, said CBS News.
NASA then proceeded to carry out weeks of tests to determine if the capsule was safe to bring Wilmore and Williams home.
While Boeing managers thought the Starliner could bring the two astronauts home, NASA argued otherwise and they've been stranded in space ever since.