why is shuttle retrieving stranded astronauts not returning until February? SpaceX shuttle launched yesterday. The ISS is close to earth. What will it do for next 5 months?
In: Planetary Science
The SpaceX Crew 9 capsule already have two astronauts on it who have a mission to do on the ISS. They do not plan on leaving until February. In fact they planned on having a crew of four so they have work planned for two astronauts who can not go because their seats are needed for the rescue.
The situation is not treated as any kind of emergency. Nobody is going to take any risks or even waste any resources on returning the astronauts. If it was an emergency they can be down on the ground in 10-20 minutes, in fact they could have returned on the Starliner that brought them up and they would be fine. But as this is not an emergency and the astronauts are fine and healthy they are just added to the normal crew rotation. No need to launch an extra rescue mission for them. There is even room for them in the Dragon capsule which is preparing to leave now, but the seats are just improvised and might not work well in an emergency crash. So the astronauts are willing to wait 5 months to get proper seats.
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