spacetoday.net: NASA astronauts moved from Starliner flights because of delays

NASA astronauts moved from Starliner flights because of delays

Posted: Sun, Oct 10, 2021, 11:58 AM ET (1558 GMT)
CST-100 Starliner in orbit (Boeing)

NASA has moved two astronauts from Boeing to SpaceX commercial crew missions because of continued delays with Boeing's CST-100 Starliner. NASA said Wednesday that astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, previously assigned to two Starliner missions, would instead fly on the Crew-5 Crew Dragon mission in the fall of 2022. NASA said it wanted to give the two rookie astronauts flight experience sooner rather than later given uncertainty about the schedule for future Starliner missions. NASA officials said at a briefing Wednesday they are continuing to work with Russia on an agreement to swap seats between Soyuz and commercial crew vehicles, with Crew-5 the earliest that a Russian cosmonaut would fly on a commercial crew vehicle.