NASA
On Friday, NASA announced a decision that has roiled the leadership of the agency's human spaceflight program for several weeks. The space agency named the two crew members who will take part in a Crew Dragon mission scheduled to launch to the International Space Station no earlier than September 24.
NASA astronaut Nick Hague will serve as mission commander and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov will serve as mission specialist. Instead of the usual four astronauts, a two-person crew was required because the Crew 9 spacecraft had to be used. Freedomas a rescue vehicle for the astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. They flew to the station in June on board Boeing's Starliner, but the return was deemed too unsafe for them.
Wilmore and Williams will join the additional Crew-9 aboard the space station and fly back to Earth with Hague and Gorbunov next February.
The story behind the story
This represents a significant change from the original composition of the Crew-9 list. NASA publicly announced the original members of Crew-9 last January, including three NASA astronauts and Gorbunov. Zena Cardman was to take command, Hague was to serve as pilot, and Stephanie Wilson and Gorbunov were to serve as mission specialists.
At the time, Cardman's appointment was significant – she would have been the first female astronaut with no test pilot experience to lead a NASA spaceflight. Cardman, a 36-year-old geobiologist, joined NASA in 2017 and is highly regarded by her colleagues. Appointing an inexperienced non-test pilot to lead the Crew-9 mission reflected NASA's confidence in Dragon's self-flying capabilities to reach the station autonomously. The appointment was made in 2022 by then-chief astronaut Reid Wiseman, and the astronaut office was confident that Cardman could lead the mission with an experienced hand in Hague at her side.
The need to save Wilmore and Williams changed the equation. Joe Acaba, a veteran astronaut who became chief of the astronaut office in February 2023, had to select a new crew list. To maintain the ongoing rotation with the Russian space program, one of the crew members had to be Gorbunov. So Acaba had to choose between Cardman, Hague and Wilson.
Initially, Acaba stayed with Cardman. She was, after all, the original commander of the mission. But sources say this caused considerable resentment in the astronaut office. Although Cardman is respected and Dragon is intended to be fully autonomous, being the only NASA representative aboard the vehicle was a lot to ask. (Russian astronauts generally do not have extensive training in piloting American vehicles.) A not insignificant percentage of professional astronauts succumb to space sickness during the first hours of their spaceflight.
Some members of the astronaut office argued that Hague was the safer choice. Hague, an Air Force test pilot, survived a horrific Soyuz spacecraft crash in 2018 and subsequently flew in space for more than six months in 2019. Hague, these astronauts said, was the safer choice for NASA if the agency truly wanted to maximize the mission's chances of success.
Those dissenting voices eventually prevailed, with some support from the upper echelons of NASA management, and Acaba swapped Hague for Cardman. A decision was made before a flight readiness review meeting on August 24, but was not publicly announced until Friday.
Official NASA comment
“We have changed crew before for a variety of reasons, but downsizing the crew for this flight was another difficult decision as the crew was trained as a four-person crew,” Acaba said in a press release issued Friday. “I have complete confidence in our entire crew, who have performed excellently throughout training for the mission. Zena and Stephanie will continue to support their crewmates prior to launch and they are an example of what it means to be a professional astronaut.”
In the press release, Cardman also offered a noble quote when she announced Friday that her father, Larry Cardman, had passed away three weeks ago. “I am deeply proud of our entire crew,” she said. “And I am confident that Nick and Alex will excel in their roles. All four of us remain committed to the success of this mission, and Stephanie and I look forward to flying when the time is right.”
We hope their time comes very, very soon.