Crew Dragon 9: The mission commander is not on the crew list?
Surprise, surprise. The two Space X CD 9 female astronauts will not go into space after all! What in the name of NASA and Elon Musk is going on this time?
Of course, we are talking about the upcoming mission of the Crew Dragon 9 spaceship whose launch is expected in just a few days from now.
The original crew consists of American astronauts Nick Hauge, Stephanie Wilson, Zena Cardman, and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov.
A little earlier this month, two Russian cosmonauts Alexsey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, with whom American astronaut Donald Pettit is traveling on the ISS, will go into space from Russia.
It was supposed to be a planned replacement of the current long-term crew with new forces.
After the unreal scandal surrounding the American (Boeing) spaceship CST 100 Starliner aka the problem of the return of B. Wilmore and S. Williams came to the fore.
They agreed to the International Space Station at the beginning of June, after eight days they were scheduled to return to Earth. Now they are seemingly acting worse than the Starliner, which was judged to be dangerous to the lives of the crew.
At the end of August, NASA made a decision to try to land the Starliner without a crew on the principle of “if it goes well”, and if it doesn’t go well, at least our astronauts don’t burn alive or remain without living conditions in a metal coffin somewhere in Earth’s orbit. Shocking to say the least.
Is this what we expected from NASA and Boeing? Maybe…
What we did not expect was the “removal from the original crew”.
This includes both female astronauts, Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson.
This reduced the four-member crew of Crew Dragon 9 to only two members: Nick Hague (USA) and Alexander Gorbunov (Russian Federation).
The reasoning of the head of NASA’s astronauts (Joe Acaba) that the planned crew of Crew Dragon 9 was trained to work as a four-man crew and that they would not be ready to return as a six-man crew – with the two-man crew of the decommissioned Starliner on board.
While it might offend common sense, here is the original quote.
“While we’ve changed crew before for a variety of reasons, downsizing crew for this flight was another tough decision to adjust given that the crew has trained as a crew of four.”
What is behind this statement?
Perhaps the desire to end the topic of saving reputation. Perhaps lack of time to prepare Crew Dragon 9 in its new role. Probably far more serious technical matters about the SpaceX spaceship.
All that is certain is that the seats on CD 9 were reconfigured (as far as possible) for Wilmore and Williams, and that the new SpaceX spacesuits were made and packed into the space of Crew Dragon 9.
Yes, you read that right. Boeing’s and SpaceX’s astronaut suits are not unified!
It is really incomprehensible why the key elements are incompatible with each other.
Be that as it may, there are now many reasons and elements for a complete understanding and quality analysis of American astronautics.
What is hidden under the carpet will be revealed after the departure of the Starliner from the ISS and the landing of Crew Dragon 9 in February 2025.
The American astronauts, erased from the crew list of Crew Dragon 9, might go into space sometime in the future. Who knows?
Oh, and, to make the story more interesting, while Stephanie Wilson is a veteran of spaceflight, Zena Cardman was the mission commander of Crew Dragon 9!
The public there is quite surprised and outraged by this decision of NASA and Boeing. What are your thoughts on this matter, fellow astronomy enthusiasts?
