Stranded Astronauts To Be Rescued By Space Force

Space Force Guardian, Col. Nick Hague will be joined by a civilian Roscosmos cosmonaut, Aleksander Gorbunov to rescue the stranded astronauts. The pair were originally intended to have two additional crewmates, but the rescue mission required their seats aboard the SpaceX craft.

The mission is set to solve the problem of both not enough seats as well as not enough compatible space suits available in previous configurations.

The reason for the combined crew, including both a Space Force Guardian and a Cosmonaut from Roscosmos in the rescue mission to retrieve the stranded astronauts is partly to preserve the shared responsibility relationship between the US and Russia aboard the International Space Station.

The experienced systems specialist, Gorbunov will help to ensure the safe continued operation of equipment aboard the space station while Hague, with over 200 hours in space will lead the rescue effort.

Although the other two astronauts who were a part of the original mission won’t be going to space, Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson will help to prepare for the launch.

Space Force was formed on December 20, 2019, creating the first new branch of the armed forces in more than 70 years. While the military branch doesn’t train astronauts, and they don’t necessarily work for Space Force while in space, there are Space Force Guardians that occasionally perform missions for NASA.

Col. Hague will operate as a NASA astronaut for the mission to rescue the stranded astronauts, even though he is an active Colonel in Space Force.

Col. Hague will be the first Space Force Guardian to participate in a launch mission into space if the mission to rescue the stranded astronauts goes as planned.

Although Mike Hopkins holds the honor of being the first Space Force Guardian in space, as he was sworn in aboard the International Space Station, he was not in Space Force when he left Earth.

Despite the name, Space Force doesn’t actually work in space but rather has Earth-based space defense capabilities as well as managing the East and West Coast launch sites that are used by the DoD and NASA.

Since the rescue mission won’t launch until after February 2025, the stranded astronauts will have to wait quite a while longer for a rescue. The two have been performing maintenance and participating in the research aboard the ISS while they’ve been stuck, and hopefully, the plan to retrieve them will go ahead on schedule.

The safe return of the pair has been a point of contention for Boeing as well as NASA since their craft began to malfunction, and the current plan intends to bring them back to Earth with fully functional space suits aboard a SpaceX capsule.