WASHINGTON — A veteran NASA astronaut and rookie Russian cosmonaut will fly to the International Space Station in September as the downsized crew of a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, a ripple effect of problems with Boeing’s Starliner.
NASA announced Aug. 30 that Nick Hague will serve as commander of Crew-9, joined by mission specialist Aleksandr Gorbunov of Roscosmos. The mission is scheduled to launch no earlier than Sept. 24 on the Crew Dragon spacecraft Freedom.
Both had been previously assigned to Crew-9, with Hague as pilot. The original crew also included NASA astronauts Zena Cardman as commander and Stephanie Wilson as mission specialist.
However, NASA decided to remove Cardman and Wilson from the flight, and make Hague commander, to free up two of the four seats on Crew Dragon. That will allow astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to return on the spacecraft when the Crew-9 mission ends in February 2025.
Wilmore and Williams flew to the station in June on the Starliner Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission for a stay originally projected to be as short as eight days. However, concerns about the performance of Starliner’s thrusters led NASA to announce Aug. 24 that Starliner would return uncrewed, with Wilmore and Williams remaining on the station as now part of a long-duration crew.
The agency said in a statement that Joe Acaba, NASA chief astronaut, made the decision to keep Hague and Gorbunov on Crew-9. “Acaba had to balance flying a NASA crew member with previous spaceflight experience to command the flight, while ensuring NASA maintains an integrated crew with a Roscosmos cosmonaut who can operate their critical systems for continued, safe station operations,” the agency stated.
“While we’ve changed crew before for a variety of reasons, downsizing crew for this flight was another tough decision to adjust to given that the crew has trained as a crew of four,” Acaba said in a statement. “Zena and Stephanie will continue to assist their crewmates ahead of launch, and they exemplify what it means to be a professional astronaut.”
Initial speculation had Cardman remaining on the mission as commander along with Gorbunov. Cardman, though, would be making her first spaceflight, as will Gorbunov. Hague flew on the aborted Soyuz MS-10 mission in October 2018, when the Soyuz spacecraft’s escape system took the capsule away from its malfunctioning rocket, landing near the Baikonur Cosmodrome. He flew on Soyuz MS-12 in 2019, spending 203 days on the station.
“I am deeply proud of our entire crew,” said Cardman in the NASA statement, “and I am confident Nick and Alex will step into their roles with excellence.” NASA said that both Cardman and Wilson will be reassigned to upcoming missions.
Gorbunov was expected to be retained in any scenario to maintain “integrated crews” such that there is at least one American and one Russian on the station should either Soyuz or commercial crew vehicles become unavailable. The upcoming Soyuz MS-26 mission to the ISS, scheduled to launch Sept. 11, will carry NASA astronaut Don Pettit along with Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner.
NASA announced Aug. 28 that it assigned astronaut Jonny Kim to the following Soyuz mission to the ISS, Soyuz MS-27 in March 2025. Kim had been training as Pettit’s backup.
Plans for integrated crews beyond that mission are uncertain. Roscosmos announced Aug. 21 that it assigned crews to the Soyuz MS-28 mission in late 2025 and Soyuz MS-29 in 2026. Both missions will be crewed entirely by Roscosmos cosmonauts, the agency said.
