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two stranded american astronauts

ifeng.com technology news beijing time on september 28, american astronauts (nasa) are about to launch the space rescue mission crew-9. spacex will launch a manned "dragon" spacecraft to bring two american astronauts trapped on the international space station. return to earth.

on june 6 this year, american astronauts barry wilmore and sunita williams flew to the international space station on boeing's "starliner". they were originally scheduled to fly to the international space station on june 14. returned to earth, but was stranded in space due to technical failures such as a helium leak in the "interstellar airliner".

at 13:17 eastern time on saturday (1:17 beijing time on sunday), spacex will launch the manned dragon spacecraft from cape canaveral, florida, carrying american astronaut nick hague. ) and russian cosmonaut aleksandr gorbunov to the international space station.

the crew-9 mission was originally supposed to carry four astronauts, but in order to bring back the two astronauts who were previously trapped, astronauts zena cardman and stephanie cardman who were originally involved in the mission stephanie wilson gave up the mission to free up two seats. when the spacecraft returns next year, the two stranded astronauts will sit in these two seats and return to earth.

ken bowersox, nasa's associate administrator for space operations, said at a news conference on friday that the agency would make up for cadman and wilson in the future. "we will look for opportunities for them to fly. we know how difficult it is to abandon this mission and wait for a while." bowersox said.

if the crew-9 mission launches successfully on saturday, the spacex crew dragon spacecraft is expected to dock with the international space station at 5:30 p.m. et on sunday. steve stich, manager of nasa's commercial crew program, told reporters on friday that if saturday's flight is hampered by weather or other issues, they still have a chance to launch on sunday or next monday.

after the dragon spacecraft docks with the international space station, the mission will last about six months and return to earth around february next year. were it not for starliner's technical glitches, wilmore and williams would have been able to return to earth in about a week.

"we've been missing our family. i'm missing my two dogs, i'm missing my friends. there are so many people on the planet texting us and it makes you feel like you're with everyone." williams this month expressed earlier. (author/xiao yu)

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