SpaceX Launches Rescue Mission for Two Boeing Starliner Astronauts
Starliner crew members Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were very happy to see a successful launch.
The last time I reported on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, it landed uncrewed in a New Mexico desert. In February 2025, it ended a three-month test mission troubled by technical issues that forced the astronauts it flew to the International Space Station to remain there.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has tasked SpaceX to retrieve the stranded astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. The Crew Dragon spacecraft, nicknamed Freedom, has launched and is going to the ISS.
NASA previously delayed the launch attempt from Thursday, rolling the spacecraft back into its hangar as Hurricane Helene threatened Florida and other parts of the southeastern United States. Mission teams reset everything at the launchpad Friday after the danger had passed.
Unlike other routine trips ferrying astronauts to and from the space station under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program — of which SpaceX has already launched eight — the outbound leg of this mission is carrying only two crew members instead of four: NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
Two other seats are flying empty, reserved for Williams and Wilmore to occupy on the spacecraft’s return flight in 2025. The configuration is part of an ad hoc plan that NASA chose to implement in late August after the space agency deemed the Starliner capsule too risky to return with crew.
Boeing’s astronauts were very happy to see the successful launch. One of the two NASA astronauts aboard Crew 9 has experience with launch emergencies.
Wilmore and Williams watched the liftoff via a live link sent to the space station, prompting a cheer of “Go Dragon!” from Williams, NASA deputy program manager Dina Contella said.
Williams has been promoted to commander of the space station, which will soon be back to its normal population of seven. Once Hague and Gorbunov arrive on Sunday, four astronauts living there since March can leave in their own SpaceX capsule. Their homecoming was delayed a month by Starliner’s turmoil.
Hague noted before the flight that change is the one constant in human spaceflight.
“There’s always something that is changing. Maybe this time it’s been a little more visible to the public,” he said.
Hague was thrust into the commander’s job for the rescue mission based on his experience and handling of a launch emergency six years ago. The Russian rocket failed shortly after liftoff, and the capsule carrying him and a cosmonaut catapulted off the top to safety.
Nothing succeeds like success, and SpaceX is aiming high. The company aims to build a mega-rocket daily in a “starship factory.”
SpaceX now aims to build on the progress with its Starship program as continues work on Starfactory, a new manufacturing facility under construction at the company’s Starbase site in South Texas. As it looks to use Starship to eventually make humanity interplanetary, SpaceX has stated the ambitious goal of producing one new Starship rocket every single day at the new facility.
“We have Ships and Super Heavy boosters built and either ready to launch or in testing for the next several flights with more coming off of the production line as SpaceX’s Starfactory continues to grow,” Jessie Anderson, SpaceX’s Falcon Structures Manufacturing Engineering Manager, said during SpaceX’s livestream of the Starship flight test Thursday. “The latest phase of the factory currently under construction will come online this summer, giving us several 100,000 more square feet of space.”
Hopefully, the Starliner crew will make it home in time for Valentin’s Day, and SpaceX will continue on a trajectory of success in the new space race.
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Comments
Space X to the rescue!
It’s amazing how little coverage this is getting in the traditional media. You really can’t hate the media enough.
Kinda begs the question what would they do in the event of an emergency eh 🤔
All these Government organs are having to make themselves Elons bitch 😂😂
This mission will just make the statists hate Elon even more. Go Elon!
Since Elon has partnered up with Trump, the MSM have put him on their ‘Most Favorable To Ignore’. to their detriment. More people are getting their side on the news other than what MSM tries to change if not obscure from the public. The news of the day reporting which was biased was countered and encouraged by Andrew Breitbart by his promotion to others to be reporting more openly with what they were seeing. Wherein he demonstrated and encouraged the current and next generation of news reporters. Legal Insurrection is a testament to this.
So much so that we can see by the founding now of the Foundations carrying what should be made publicly available but was not. Especially pertaining to government and educational policies.
Thank you Prof. J and Staff
They aint the only Boeing employees who would like Elon to rescue them.
HR departments everywhere are being inundated with Boeing resumes.
Lots of wishing that the stock would go low enough for Elon to buy the joint.
Mayb e Space-X should go into the airliner business.
Very difficult to compete with Airbus because of the incredible subsidies and tax breaks it receives from the EU.
Boeing isn’t subsidy-free, either, to be fair — a lot of Boeing’s defense contracts are basically U.S. government subsidies propping up its airliner division.
You know how much NASA administrators hated having to call in SpaceX to their rescue, giving the opportunity for deserved praise and plaudits to be heaped upon an Elon Musk-owned company.
When the feds aren’t suing/threatening/vilifying Musk and his companies, they are calling him to the rescue.
Michael Ramirez cartoon…. Planet of the Apes final scene… the girl asks the astronaut kneeling in the sand….”so you were part of the original Boeing Starliner crew?”
Boeing, Boeing … gone. Gone are the days of the 707, 727 and 747. The 737 morphed into a Max-imum killing machine. DeHavilland dropped the brass ring to Boening and they dropped it to Airbus… ouch.
Boeing had a real clinker back 75 years ago. Anyone remember the Boeing 377 Statocruiser? There was a real winner!
It wasn’t just engine and propellor issues. Look up “Lady with a Past” by aviation writer Ernest K. Gann.
This is not a rescue mission since they are still staying up there until next spring. This is a scheduled resupply mission.
“Mayday, we need rescue”
“Sure, we will be there about April”
I would have simply said, “Oohh, we have some unspecified safety issues. We wouldn’t want to cross the FAA. We should stand down until they get that resolved.”
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