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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