The space agency says teams will use a previously flown SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule for its Crew-10 mission to the International Space Station instead of a new SpaceX capsule whose production has been delayed.
NASA has swapped out the astronaut capsule it plans to use for an upcoming routine flight to the International Space Station, a scheduling move that will allow a slightly earlier return for two Starliner astronauts who have been on the station far longer than expected.
The US space agency said on Tuesday mission management teams opted to use a previously flown SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule for its Crew-10 mission to the space station, instead of a new SpaceX capsule whose production it said has been delayed.
The decision moves up the Crew-10 launch to March 12, from the previous target of March 25.
“Human spaceflight is full of unexpected challenges,” NASA’s commercial crew program manager Steve Stich said in a statement.
The test pilots, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, should have returned in June on Boeing’s Starliner capsule after what should have been a weeklong flight demo. But the capsule had so much trouble getting to the space station that NASA decided to bring it back empty and reassigned the pair to SpaceX.
Then SpaceX delayed the launch of their replacements on a brand new capsule that needed more prepping, which added more time to Wilmore and Williams’ mission.
Accelerating return
The private flight arranged by the Houston company Axiom Space, featuring astronauts from Poland, Hungary and India, was bumped and will launch later to the space station, possibly still this spring.
NASA prefers having a new crew arrive before sending the old one back, in this case Wilmore, Williams and two others up there since September.
The new crew going up includes two NASA astronauts, as well as one from Japan and one from Russia.
NASA’s latest change in plans comes two weeks after the space agency said it was working “expeditiously” to bring back Wilmore and Williams as soon as possible.
Just a day earlier, President Donald Trump and SpaceX’s Elon Musk had vowed to accelerate the astronauts’ return.
