NASA stranded astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore to come back home sooner than planned.
According to Hindustan Times, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Tuesday, February 11, 2025, announced a new return date for the stranded astronauts after US President Donald Trump asked Elon Musk to bring them back as soon as possible.
The space agency said that instead of sending new spacecraft to bring back Starliner astronauts, it has now planned to use previously flown SpaceX Crew Dragon for its Crew-10 mission. This change in plan will bring Williams and Wilmore earlier than the previous schedule.
NASA also announced that it is accelerating the launching and return date of upcoming International Space Station crew rotation missions.
The launch that was earlier scheduled for March 25 has now been moved up to Wednesday, March 12, 2025.However, this is "pending mission readiness and completion of the agency's certification of flight readiness process.”
Moreover, the agency explained that the mission management team decided to use the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule after the production of the new spacecraft got delayed.
NASA states, “Teams will work to complete Dragon’s refurbishment and ready the spacecraft for flight, which includes trunk stack, propellant load, and transportation to SpaceX’s hangar at 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida to be mated with the mission’s Falcon 9 rocket.”
Notably, the capsule that was used to bring Williams and Wilmore, who went on a mission in June 2024, home is called Endurance.
