The American space agency NASA has postponed the SpaceX Crew-9 space mission from August 18 to September 24 amid rumors of problems with the Boeing Starliner.
CNN writes about it.
This will give mission managers more time to plan the return of the Starliner and its crew.
The Boeing Starliner spacecraft set off on its first mission with astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) on June 5 — it succeeded on its third attempt. Two veteran NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Suni Williams are participating in the mission.
They were supposed to return in a week, but the mission has already been delayed for two months. Recently, NASA said that it is still undecided about the date of the astronautsʼ return.
The return of the Starliner in automatic mode and the delay of the Crew-9 mission are related. NASA did not detail the problem, but the software on the Boeing spacecraft needs to be updated, tested and certified to enable automatic reentry from ISS.
Therefore, sending additional astronauts to the already overcrowded crew of the ISS is impractical until the Starliner is fully prepared for descent to Earth.
- Crew-9 is SpaceXʼs ninth rotational mission to the space station. Astronaut Zena Cardman was appointed as the mission commander. Also on board the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft will be pilot Nick Hague, NASA astronaut Stephanie Wilson and “Roskosmos” cosmonaut Oleksandr Gorbunov.