Bringing Astronauts Home

Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore thought they were taking off for a couple weeks in space.Their mission was to test Boeing’s new Starliner spacecraft and then head home.

It didn’t go as planned.Nine months later, the NASA astronauts will finally return to Earth from the International Space Station next week if there are no other hitches.Their relief is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX ship tonight (though weather may change the plan) and arrive at the space station on Saturday.

In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain how Williams and Wilmore got stuck in orbit for so long — and why NASA decided not to bring them back sooner.A puzzleThe saga started in June.Although NASA thought the mission would be short, the agency was careful; it trained Williams and Wilmore to work and live on the space station for months, just in case the flight went awry.As Starliner approached the space station, some of its thrusters stopped working for a while.

Still, it was able to dock.After a couple of months of troubleshooting, space agency officials decided to play it safe.

They’d bring Starliner back to Earth without the astronauts.(It landed without incident in September.) But that meant Williams and Wilmore needed another ride home.

Think of it as the space version of rebooking passengers after a flight cancellation.It’s not easy being a NASA travel agent.The agency likes having seven astronauts on the space station.

Every six months or so, it swaps four out.(Russia sends three astronauts at a time.) With Williams and Wilmore sticking around, NASA had two more bodies to worry about.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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