NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson were intending to get a lift to the International Space Station on board a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft over the weekend.
But thanks to Boeing’s disastrous crewed test flight of its issues-laden Starliner spacecraft, the two women had to stay behind to make space for their stranded colleagues, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.
Wilmore and Williams, who have been stuck on board the ISS since June and had to wave their Starliner ride goodbye as it made its reentry without them last month, will take Cardman and Wilson’s seats in February instead.
“I think it was hard not to watch that rocket lift off without thinking, ‘That’s my rocket and that’s my crew,'” Cardman said during NASA’s live broadcast of Saturday’s Crew-9 launch, as quoted by Space.com. “It makes me feel very connected to this mission.”
Hate to Watch You Leave
Two out of the four seats on board the Crew Dragon were occupied by NASA astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, who will be returning alongside Wilmore and Williams early next year.
Hague has been on two trips to the ISS, while Gorbunov is on his first flight to space. Cardman has yet to visit the ISS, while Wilson flew to space onboard three Space Shuttle missions between 2006 and 2010.
It must’ve been a bittersweet moment, watching the two leave without Cardman or Wilson on board. After all, an opportunity to launch into space is exceedingly rare.
“We, of course, want to be together,” Wilson said during the broadcast. “We have built friendship and camaraderie … but I’m very excited for them, looking forward to hearing their stories from space.”
To balance out the weight, Cardman and Wilson’s bodies were simulated using pieces of ballast inside the Crew Dragon capsule.
Cardman applauded NASA for prioritizing the “safety of the crew,” and added that Williams and Wilmore were “well-prepared” professionals.
In late August, NASA made the decision to bump the two women from the flight. Instead, they had to watch their colleagues get ready over many weeks, an unfortunate reality brought about by Boeing’s plagued Starliner.
“Zena and Stephanie will continue to assist their crewmates ahead of launch,” NASA chief astronaut Joe Acaba said in a statement at the time. “They exemplify what it means to be a professional astronaut.”
