Space Force going to actually do Space Force stuff

In the never-ending litany of Good Things happening to Boeing, one of the noteworthy items has the Boeing Starliner’s docking – and subsequent INability to return home – leaving its two riders stuck at the International Space Station (ISS) for the duration.

Boeing’s Starliner launched June 5 with Williams and Wilmore on a mission slated to last only eight days, but mechanical issues with the spacecraft and concerns over whether it could return the duo safely have left them aboard the ISS for around three months.

Somehow it doesn’t have the same ring as “a three hour tour” but still…  The return has been dogged with complications – I read their Boeing suits are incompatible with the SpaceX craft, their capsule wasn’t designed to fly remotely so was stuck blocking one of the two ISS docking bays, and – oh, yeah, the retro rockets to land were not working correctly. Boeing lost so much face within NASA that essentially they have been taken off the problem of getting the overdue astronauts back.

Col. Nick Hague, an active-duty Space Force Guardian, will be joined by Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft for NASA’s Crew-9 mission. Originally, Hague and Gorbunov were supposed to be joined by two other astronauts for a trip to space, but problems with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft that have left astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams stuck aboard the space station for months longer than anticipated shifted the mission objective, date and staffing.

Hague and Gorbunov will launch no earlier than Sept. 24, NASA said in a Friday news release, and will return to Earth with Wilmore and Williams in February 2025. The Guardian and the cosmonaut were chosen for their particular experience and skill sets, the agency said.

While the Space Force does not create or train astronauts, the Department of Defense has historically provided and loaned many pilots to NASA for involvement with civilian space exploration. Roughly two-thirds of NASA astronauts have prior military experience, according to the Space Force.

Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who focuses on space and defense policy, told Military.com in an interview Monday that Hague’s involvement in the Crew-9 launch, while notable, may lend to more public confusion about the Space Force’s overall mission, which is creating forces to protect and defend America’s satellite fleet and interests in space.

I suspect the two lads  on the SpaceX Dragon will be the heroes of the day. Me, I’m thinking the Space Force should be grateful for good publicity?

Hague will be the first Guardian to launch into space if the Crew-9 mission goes as planned. However, it would mark his third launch and second time in space overall as he had previous missions when he was a member of the Air Force. His first mission in 2018 ended with a malfunction, leading to an in-flight launch abort.

His first visit to space happened in 2019, where he stayed aboard the ISS for 203 days. Following that mission, he was the Space Force’s director of test and evaluation, serving as an Air Force officer, then transferred into the newest service branch in 2021.

UPDATE –  by the time you read this the Starliner craft may have landed at White Sands, NM – NASA will attempt to deorbit it Friday evening.

Landing, at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico, is scheduled about six hours later, on Saturday (Sept. 7) at 12:03 a.m. EDT (0403 GMT or 10:03 p.m. local time Sept. 6). NASA will livestream that event as well, starting at 10:50 p.m. EDT (0250 GMT).  Space.com

As you may know,  these columns are written sometimes days in advance, so occasionally the news overtakes us.

Category: Space Force