NASA's Stuck Astronauts: Splashdown after 9 months in Space

What's the news?

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, two NASA astronauts, have finally made it back to Earth. When the two boarded Boeing's Starliner spacecraft for the first crewed voyage in June, they intended to spend only a week at the ISS. Rather, they ended up spending over nine months at the orbiting laboratory. After traveling back to Earth in a SpaceX Dragon capsule, the astronauts have finally splashed down. At 1:05 a.m. ET Tuesday, Williams and Wilmore departed the space station with Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov and NASA astronaut Nick Hague. Around 5:57 p.m. ET, the four-person crew, dubbed Crew-9, splashed down off Florida.

Background

An odd and dramatic chapter in spaceflight history came to an end with their return. It started last year when Williams and Wilmore encountered issues with the Boeing vehicle's thrusters during its docking to the space station. NASA ultimately made the decision to return the Starliner to Earth in September without any passengers. While Hague and Gorbunov arrived in September for a nearly six-month mission, the two astronauts remained in the space station and coordinated their return.

What was the Mission?

Crew-9 participated in numerous science, maintenance, and technological demonstrations during its mission. Along with Wilmore and Hague, Williams performed two spacewalks, removed a radio frequency group antenna assembly from the station's truss, collected samples for analysis from the station's exterior, covered damaged light filter areas on an X-ray telescope with patches, and more. With 62 hours and 6 minutes outside the station, Williams currently holds the record for the longest spacewalk by a female astronaut and ranks fourth overall.

Together, the U.S. crew members completed over 900 hours of study and over 150 unique scientific experiments and technology demonstrations. This study looked into the quality and growth of plants as well as the possibility of stem cell technology to treat cancer, autoimmune diseases, and blood problems. Additionally, they loaded the first wooden satellite for release, tested lighting systems to assist astronauts maintain circadian rhythms, and collected samples from the outside of the space station to investigate the possibility of microorganisms surviving in space.

Transportation to and from the space station and low Earth orbit that is safe, dependable, and economical is the aim of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The initiative helps NASA get ready for human exploration of the Moon and Mars and offers more research time and exploration chances aboard humanity's microgravity testbed.

NASA'S Agreement with SpaceX 

NASA since 2020 has used SpaceX's Crew Dragon to ferry U.S. astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The spacecraft was developed under a more than $3 billion NASA contract under the agency's Commercial Crew Program, a program created under former U.S. president Barack Obama.

NASA and SpaceX have a multi-faceted agreement, including contracts for commercial crew transportation to the International Space Station (ISS) and lunar missions under the Artemis program, as well as a joint spaceflight safety agreement focused on conjunction avoidance and launch collision avoidance.

Fixed pricing for various services are specified in NASA's contracts with SpaceX (and Boeing) for crewed missions; hence, as long as NASA doesn't seek changes, the price is typically fixed. According to SpaceX, Crew Dragon capsules can be reused up to fifteen times, which is a financially advantageous strategy for NASA. Under the Artemis program, NASA has given SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract to build the Starship, a spacecraft that will support lunar exploration and land humans on the moon. SpaceX's Starship will transport humans from lunar orbit to the surface and back by acting as a lunar lander. Starship's moon-lander version will have two airlocks for astronaut moonwalks and a large cabin.

To formally express their interest in information exchange and enhancing space safety, especially with regard to conjunction avoidance and launch collision avoidance, NASA and SpaceX have signed a collaborative agreement. Particularly covered by the agreement are the numerous SpaceX Starlink satellite constellations and associated rideshare initiatives. SpaceX's Monte Carlo trajectories and NASA's understanding of its own asset's mission plans will serve as the foundation for the risk assessment. To guarantee efficient management of their obligations under the agreement, NASA and SpaceX will collaborate to create a Management Interface Plan within 30 days of work starting.

As part of the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract, NASA and SpaceX have an agreement for the Crew-9 mission. NASA renewed this contract in March 2022 to include Crew-7, Crew-8, and Crew-9 missions, increasing the contract value to almost $3.49 billion. SpaceX uses its human Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to provide human transportation services to the International Space Station (ISS) under this firm fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. Up to four astronauts are transported on each mission, along with essential supplies. These flights will continue to operate until March 31, 2028, guaranteeing continuous American human access to the space station. For the first contract extension (missions 7, 8, and 9), the cost per-mission is roughly $258.7 million, or roughly $64.6 million each seat.

This agreement exemplifies NASA's commitment to maintaining a continuous human presence on the ISS and highlights the agency's collaboration with commercial partners like SpaceX to achieve its space exploration objectives.

Compensation & Benefits 

Members of the Crew-9 mission and other NASA astronauts are bound by contracts that normally do not cover personal damages for prolonged space travel or mission delays. However, legal claims could be investigated if a third party (such as a commercial contractor like SpaceX or Boeing) caused carelessness, contractual violations, or unanticipated damages.

NASA astronauts, such as those on the Crew-9 mission, are classified as federal employees under the General Schedule (GS) pay system, specifically at the GS-15 level. Their annual salaries range from $125,133 to $162,672, depending on experience and tenure.

Astronauts are not compensated for overtime, regardless of the length of the mission. Instead, they receive a meager $4 daily allowance for incidentals, which adds up to about $1,148 over the course of a 287-day assignment. The astronauts often cannot seek for extra remuneration only because their mission was extended because their work in space is seen as an inherent risk of the job, and they have signed agreements and are protected by sovereign immunity under federal law. Even if they suffered from psychological or physical side effects (such muscular atrophy or altered vision from prolonged microgravity), any claim for additional damages would need to demonstrate NASA's or a contractor's negligence or breach of duty, which is extremely unlikely under the current legal system.