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Elon Musk and SpaceX are looking to bring Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Suni Williams, the pair of U.S. astronauts that have been in space much longer than NASA originally planned, back to Earth soon. Unfortunately, due to a hydraulic ground issue, the launch was scrubbed approximately 30 minutes before lift-off.
Musk told FOX Business’ Larry Kudlow earlier in the week that his aerospace company is “bringing them back in a few weeks.”
In collaboration with NASA, SpaceX is scheduled on Wednesday evening to launch its Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket from the U.S. space agency’s Kennedy Space Center for the Crew-10 Mission bound for the International Space Station orbiting some 250 miles above Earth.
That mission, transporting a four-person crew meant to replace NASA’s Crew-9 currently on the ISS, is expected to usher in Wilmore and Williams’ long-awaited homecoming.
The two astronauts have spent over nine months on the International Space Station since arriving there June 6 last year. NASA had originally planned for Wilmore and Williams’ time at the ISS to only last about a week.
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft had transported the pair of astronauts from Earth to the ISS. However, it ended up coming back to Earth unmanned in September.
In August, when NASA announced the spacecraft would return without Wilmore and Williams onboard, the space agency said the spacecraft’s unmanned return would let it and Boeing “continue to gather testing data on Starliner during its upcoming flight home, while also not accepting more risk than necessary for its crew” after Starliner had “helium leaks” and “issues with the spacecraft reaction control thrusters” while docking with the ISS in June.
NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksanr Gorbunov, the Crew-9 members, arrived at the ISS in late September.
Hague, Wilmore and Williams have done 900-plus hours of research during their time on the ISS, NASA said late last week.