If the weather is right

Stranded astronauts to return home on Tuesday

Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore had to stay in space longer than planned.

(Bild: AP/AP ( via APA) Austria Presse Agentur)

The planned week in space has turned into more than nine months: But with a bit of luck, US astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who were stranded on the International Space Station (ISS), could return to Earth on Tuesday. 

At a meeting between experts from the US space agency NASA and tech billionaire Elon Musk's private space company SpaceX, the weather conditions were analyzed, NASA and SpaceX announced.

The night of Tuesday has emerged as the best time for the return flight. The current plan is for 'Crew 9' to leave the ISS at 6.05 a.m. Central European Time on Tuesday. Its capsule is then scheduled to land in the sea off the coast of the US state of Florida shortly before 11 pm. This plan could be postponed at short notice for a variety of reasons, it was said. Originally, Wednesday was planned as the day of return.

"Crew 10" replaces "Crew 9"
A space capsule with the new ISS crew reached the human outpost at the weekend. The SpaceX spacecraft "Crew Dragon" docked with the space station at 5.04 a.m. CET on Sunday, almost 420 kilometers above the Atlantic Ocean. NASA's live images of the maneuver showed the ISS crew and the new arrivals hugging each other in greeting.

The new arrivals on the ISS received a warm welcome.

(Bild: -)

Crew Dragon was joined by the four-member Crew 10, consisting of US astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. The launch was originally scheduled for last Wednesday, but then had to be postponed due to a hydraulic problem on the ground. The problem was later resolved.

The "Crew 10" is to remain in space until the fall. After a handover period in the International Space Station, it will replace "Crew 9", which includes Williams and Wilmore as well as their US colleague Nick Hague and the Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov. Hague and Gorbunov only joined them at the end of September, while Williams and Wilmore have been on the ISS since the beginning of June. US astronaut Don Pettit and the two Russian astronauts Alexei Ovchinin and Ivan Wagner, who also arrived in September, will remain on board as planned.

Series of breakdowns on the "Starliner" spacecraft
Williams and Wilmore were actually only supposed to stay in space for around a week. But then, after their arrival, there were technical problems with their Starliner spacecraft. For safety reasons, NASA therefore decided to bring the spacecraft back to Earth empty in September.

The 'Starliner' was developed by US company Boeing on behalf of NASA as an alternative to SpaceX's 'Crew Dragon' to take astronauts to the ISS. However, the project suffered several setbacks and years of delays. Manned test flights were repeatedly postponed due to technical problems with the spacecraft and rocket. When Williams and Wilmore finally arrived at the ISS in June, the 58-year-old and her 61-year-old colleague were suddenly stranded there. Both had been to space twice before. This experience probably helped them deal with the situation.