Two NASA astronauts long set to head into space were left behind when their SpaceX rocket took off without them Saturday — so stranded colleagues could take their empty seats and hitch a ride back to Earth.
Astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson were forced to give up their seats to fellow space travelers Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who were left stranded at the International Space Station when their Boeing Starliner spacecraft experienced multiple issues and returned home without them due to safety concerns.
“I think it was hard not to watch that rocket lift off without thinking, ‘That’s my rocket and that’s my crew,’” Cardman said during NASA’s broadcast of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon craft, according to Space.com.
Two members of her crew, NASA’s Nick Hague and Russia’s Aleksandr Gorbunov, departed on the rocket for the rescue mission without their planned teammates Cardman and Wilson.
Even without going to the ISS — which would have been Cardman’s first visit — she said she was still glad to be a part of the team.
“It makes me feel very connected to this mission,” she said.
Wilson also expressed that she wished the four-person crew could have gone up in space together.
“We, of course, want to be together,” she said during the broadcast, according to the outlet. “We have built friendship and camaraderie … but I’m very excited for them [Hague and Gorbunov], looking forward to hearing their stories from space.”
Without Cardman and Wilson on the trip up to the ISS, the weight balance of the Crew Dragon spacecraft was thrown off.
The crew went up with two mass simulators in their seats that will be replaced with the stranded NASA astronauts Wilmore and Williams on their return trip in February.
The two had expected to be at the ISS for just a few days but their full visit will now last eight months due to the troubles with their Boeing spacecraft.
