NASA Astronaut and Two Russian Cosmonauts Join Sunita Williams at the ISS
NASA sends another astronaut to the ISS as Sunita Williams’ mission gets extended due to Starliner issues. Safety remains a top priority as NASA collaborates with SpaceX for future missions.
NASA has sent another astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS) to join the current crew, which includes veteran astronaut Sunita Williams. This comes shortly after a NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts successfully docked with the ISS earlier today.
NASA astronaut Don Pettit, along with Russian cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, arrived at the ISS aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Their journey, which took just two orbits of Earth, culminated in a docking at 3:32 p.m. EDT (1932 GMT). The trio launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and will spend about six months in space, working on various scientific missions as part of Expedition 71 and 72.
This marks the fourth spaceflight for Pettit, NASA’s oldest active astronaut at 69 years old. He has logged an impressive 370 days in space across his career. Ovchinin is also a seasoned cosmonaut with four Soyuz launches under his belt.
Sunita Williams, another highly experienced NASA astronaut, is currently aboard the ISS after her mission was extended due to technical problems with Boeing’s Starliner capsule. Initially set to return to Earth within a week, Williams will now remain in space until February 2025. NASA decided to extend her stay after the Starliner encountered thruster malfunctions and helium leaks, making a safe return too risky.
Williams, along with fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore, was supposed to fly back in the Starliner, but safety concerns prompted NASA to plan their return using SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule early next year. An uncrewed Starliner landed back on Earth last week.
Apart from the 3 new inhabitants of the space station: Pettit, Ovchinin and Vagner, there are nine other people on the ISS. These include Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore, Michael Barratt, Tracy Caldwell-Dyson, Matthew Dominick, Jeanette Epps, and Roscosmos’ Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin and Oleg Kononenko.
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