Think about occurring a weeklong enterprise journey and never coming dwelling till the next yr. Which may be the state of affairs for U.S. astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, whose eight-day mission to the Worldwide Area Station has already stretched to greater than two months and is prone to go even longer.
The pair launched to the area station on a check flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on June 5. The plan was for them to come back again on the identical ship eight days later. However hydrogen leaks and points with the spacecraft’s thrusters made NASA and Boeing determine to delay the astronauts’ return.
If the pair don’t return on Starliner, they could fly again with one other crew of astronauts launching on a SpaceX Dragon car in September. These astronauts are assigned to a mission lasting by means of February 2025. Williams and Wilmore would be part of that mission and keep on the area station till February, too — taking their prolonged keep in area as much as eight months.
The state of affairs has prompted headlines and hand-wringing about how the pair are stranded in area. However though nothing in spaceflight is routine, this isn’t the primary time folks have been caught in area for longer than anticipated.
“This isn’t unprecedented, to have astronauts on an area station who’ve a car that they could not be capable to return with,” says Emily A. Margolis, a curator of up to date spaceflight on the Nationwide Air and Area Museum in Washington, D.C.
Given the area ambitions of firms and governments the world over, it most likely gained’t be the final (SN: 6/11/24). Each time a delay occurs, although, a unique difficulty or occasion has been accountable.
“The basic drawback is identical,” Margolis says. “You probably have a everlasting human presence in area, how do you retain folks protected and have a lifeline and a lifeboat, even when there are such a lot of various things that may go incorrect?”
An uncrewed mission introduced new provides to the area station on August 4, so the astronauts gained’t run out of meals or garments, Margolis says — though the shortage of laundry on the area station means they could get pungent.
Like different area stragglers earlier than them, Williams and Wilmore are taking their further area time in stride. “Actually, the group wished extra time” than the unique eight days, stated NASA chief flight director Emily Nelson in a information convention August 14. “They’re extremely built-in members of this crew and are at all times asking for extra work to do, frankly.”
“We’re having a good time right here on ISS,” Williams stated in a July 10 information convention. “It feels good to drift round, it feels good to be in area and work up right here…. I’m not complaining.”
Meet another astronauts whose return flights had been delayed (see slideshow). Then learn on to find the the explanation why — and the way the astronauts affected felt concerning the expertise.
Engine failure
Mechanical points have stranded astronauts in area earlier than.
In 1971, the USSR launched the world’s first area station, referred to as Salyut (SN: 7/17/76). The ninth mission to Salyut launched on a Soyuz spacecraft in April 1979, however by no means made it to the station.
The mission was speculated to carry a recent crew to the area station, after which carry the cosmonauts aboard Salyut dwelling. However the spacecraft’s engine failed shortly after launch.
Fortuitously, the cosmonauts on the Soyuz made it again to Earth safely. However the cosmonauts nonetheless in orbit, Vladimir Lyakhov and Valery Ryumin, had been left with out a protected car to return in. The Soyuz spacecraft that they had arrived in was docked to Salyut, however mission management anxious that it might have the identical engine drawback. That spacecraft was despatched down empty.
By the point a brand new, uncrewed Soyuz car arrived to carry them dwelling, the 2 cosmonauts had spent a complete of 175 days in area — a file on the time. Ryumin went on to fly two extra missions, one on Soyuz in 1980 and one on a NASA area shuttle in 1998, 18 years after he was speculated to have retired.
Geopolitical chaos
When the Soviet Union collapsed in December 1991, cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev was about 4 months right into a five-month keep aboard the Mir area station. His destiny was unsure. The nation that despatched him to area not existed. The previously Soviet Cosmodrome, situated in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, was all of the sudden underneath management of a newly impartial nation. With the chaos on Earth, it wasn’t clear when or how the cosmonaut might return dwelling.
It’s not that there was no approach for Krikalev to come back again to Earth — there was a return capsule in case of emergency. However as a result of Krikalev was the one flight engineer certified to maintain the area station operating, his departure would have meant the tip of Mir.
He ended up staying in area for 311 consecutive days, twice the length of his authentic mission. He returned to Russia on March 25, 1992.
The ordeal didn’t dampen Krikalev’s enthusiasm for area. He flew once more two years later, in February 1994, as one of many first Russian cosmonauts to fly on a NASA area shuttle. He later turned one of many first folks to stay and work on the Worldwide Area Station, marking a brand new period of Russian and American cooperation in area (SN: 6/18/04).
Spaceflight catastrophe
On February 1, 2003, NASA’s area shuttle Columbia disintegrated in Earth’s ambiance minutes earlier than it was scheduled to land (SN: 2/5/03). All seven astronauts aboard died. NASA grounded the complete shuttle fleet for two ½ years.
The tragedy meant the astronauts on the Worldwide Area Station on the time didn’t have a experience dwelling. Three of them — Don Pettit, Ken Bowersox and Nikolai Budarin — waited on the area station for about two further months earlier than returning on a Soyuz spacecraft in Could 2003.
The three astronauts “had been grieved by the rationale for the extension,” Pettit later advised area historian Frank White, writer of the e-book The Overview Impact. “However the truth that our expedition was prolonged was very a lot welcome. None of us had been prepared to come back dwelling after a brief two and a half months.” Pettit is at the moment NASA’s oldest lively astronaut at age 69, and is scheduled to fly to the area station once more on a Soyuz spacecraft this September.
Micrometeorite influence
A Soyuz spacecraft that was docked to the Worldwide Area Station sprung a coolant leak after it was hit by a tiny area rock in December 2022. NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin had been caught on the area station for six months longer than anticipated and spent greater than a yr complete in area.
In an echo of the engine failure in 1979, the broken Soyuz craft returned to Earth with nobody on board in March 2023. A substitute Soyuz arrived on the area station in February 2023. However due to the detailed choreography required to maintain budgets and schedules for area station visits on monitor, the astronauts saved engaged on the station till September.
Rubio spent 370 consecutive days in area, a file for a NASA astronaut, and continues to be hungry for extra. “I completely do need to return,” Rubio advised TIME after he returned to Earth final yr.
As 1000’s of latest satellites crowd low-Earth orbit, micrometeorite impacts would possibly change into extra of an issue. Elevated area visitors might additionally complicate launch and reentry schedules, Margolis says. “Every little thing has to line up,” she says. “You must have clear area to get dwelling.”
Climate on Earth
The third all-commercial area mission, Axiom Mission 3, launched 4 European astronauts to the Worldwide Area Station on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on January 18, 2024. The mission was speculated to return to Earth on February 3, however was delayed a number of days due to storms close to its anticipated touchdown website off the Florida coast. The crew spent 18 days on the area station and landed on February 9.
That crew wasn’t upset by the extension, both. “Extra time on the @Space_Station = Extra images!” mission commander Michael Lόpez-Alegría posted on X (previously Twitter) on February 6.
Regardless of the inherent risks, many earthbound astronauts are wanting to return to area, even once they’ve lived by means of the last word flight delays.
“Given the selection of a six-month mission or a one-year mission, I would favor a one-year mission,” Pettit stated in his interview with White. “Individuals suppose I’m joking, however I’m severe once I say that if we had the expertise, I’d load my household and myself on the subsequent rocket and we might immigrate into area and by no means come again to planet Earth.”
