The stranded astronauts finally get home. A new NASA mission is heading to the ISS

American astronaut Nick Hague and his Russian colleague Alexander Gorbunov went into orbit on Saturday. A five-month scientific program awaits them at the orbital station, where they are expected to arrive on Sunday at 23:30 CEST.

Special attention is being paid to the new mission because it is supposed to allow the return of a lost pair of American astronauts. Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams arrived at the ISS in early June.

The Starliner spacecraft, manufactured by Boeing, was used for this purpose for the first time. As the ship approached the ISS, it had technical problems with a fuel leak and several controls failing. The crew planned to return to Earth on this ship on June 14.

Some problems have been resolved in the past months, but the Starliner crew is still in space and according to current plans they will extend their stay in orbit until February.

Due to problems with the Starliner spacecraft, the initial launch of the current Crew-9 mission, which was supposed to take place in the second half of August, was also postponed. After it was determined that the Starliner, which was still docked to the ISS, was not safe enough, the ship returned to earth without a crew.

Another mission delay this week was caused by Hurricane Helene, which threatened the coast of Florida. Preparations for the launch of the mission began again on Friday after the threat from the natural element in this part of the US state has passed. However, the hurricane continues to devastate the northwestern region of Florida and several other neighboring states and, according to the American media, it is already at least 52 victims.

Ten years ago, NASA ordered a spacecraft from SpaceX and Boeing as part of a cooperation program with commercial organizations. While the first crewed flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon took place in 2020, Boeing’s Starliner, due to many development delays and subsequent delays, began with astronauts on June 5 of this year.