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NASA bumps two astronauts from upcoming flight to give Starliner crew a ride home in February
NASA has bumped two female astronauts, including the commander, from the next SpaceX crew rotation flight to the International Space Station, freeing up two seats to give the agency’s Starliner astronauts a ride home next February.
Rookie Crew 9 commander Zena Cardman and veteran Stephanie Wilson will remain behind when the Crew Dragon ferry ship takes off from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Sept. 24 carrying crewmate Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov.
Also on board: clothing, supplies and SpaceX pressure suits for Starliner commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and co-pilot Sunita Williams, whose originally planned eight-day test flight reached its 86th day on Friday. By the time they land aboard the Crew 9 capsule next February, they will have logged more than 262 days in space.
Hague, a Space Force colonel, former F-16 test pilot and combat veteran who logged 203 days in space on an earlier mission, was originally assigned as Cardman’s co-pilot. He now will take on the role of mission commander, assisted by Gorbunov.
Gorbunov kept his seat aboard the Crew 9 Dragon as part of an ongoing program in which Russian Soyuz spacecraft carry one NASA astronaut on each flight to the ISS and a cosmonaut launches on each Crew Dragon.
That ensures each country always has at least one crew member on board the lab even if an emergency forces one ferry ship and its crew to make an unplanned return to Earth. But Gorbunov is not trained to serve as a Crew Dragon pilot and will retain his original “mission specialist” designation.
The decision on who would fly aboard the Crew 9 mission and who would stay behind was made by NASA chief astronaut Joe Acaba. While he did not explain his reasoning in a NASA statement announcing the decision, Hague’s spaceflight experience clearly made the difference.
“While we’ve changed crew before for a variety of reasons, downsizing crew for this flight was another tough decision to adjust to given that the crew has trained as a crew of four,” he said in a statement. “I have the utmost confidence in all our crew. … Zena and Stephanie will continue to assist their crewmates ahead of launch.”
In the same statement, Cardman said: “I am confident Nick and Alex will step into their roles with excellence. All four of us remain dedicated to the success of this mission, and Stephanie and I look forward to flying when the time is right.”
NASA originally intended to launch Cardman, Hague, Wilson and Gorbunov earlier this month on a normal six-month tour of duty, replacing three other astronauts and a cosmonaut — Crew 8 — wrapping up their own half-year stay aboard the station.
But the Crew 9 flight was held up while NASA managers debated whether Boeing’s Starliner capsule, launched June 5 on the ship’s first piloted test flight, could safely bring its two crew members home in the wake of multiple helium leaks and thruster problems shortly after launch June 5.
Playing it safe, agency managers decided on Aug. 24 to keep Wilmore and Williams on board the station for an extended stay and to bring the Boeing spacecraft back to Earth by remote control. That left Crew Dragon as the only ship available to take Wilmore and Williams back to Earth.
The Starliner is now expected to undock from the space station on Sept. 6, setting up an uncrewed landing at White Sands, N.M., late that night.
The Crew 9 launch is the first step in a complex sequence of flights to replace the station’s seven long-duration crew members with a fresh set of astronauts and cosmonauts.
The Russians plan to launch two cosmonauts, Aleksey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, along with NASA astronaut Donald Pettit to the lab complex on Sept. 11. Cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub and NASA’s Tracy Dyson then will return to Earth on Sept. 23, the day before the two-man Crew 9 takes off.
Kononenko and Chub are wrapping up a full year in orbit and will have logged 374 days aloft at touchdown. Kononenko also will set a new record for the most time in space across multiple flights: 1,111 days.
The four Crew 8 fliers — Matthew Dominick, Mike Barratt, Jeanette Epps and cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin — are expected to head home on Oct. 1 to complete the crew rotation sequence.
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What’s known about Ryan Wesley Routh, suspect in possible Trump assassination attempt
A picture is emerging of the suspect who officials say pointed a high-powered rifle at former president Donald Trump on a Florida golf course Sunday afternoon.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was armed with an AK-47-style rifle and was 300-500 yards away from Trump when members of the former president’s Secret Service detail spotted him, according to Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw. Routh was a few holes ahead of where the president was golfing at the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, officials said.
Members of the Secret Service detail opened fire at Routh, according to law enforcement officials. It’s not clear if Routh fired any shots. Bradshaw said a witness saw a man jumping out of the bushes and fleeing in a black Nissan. The car was pulled over and the driver detained and identified as the suspect. Law enforcement found the rifle, a scope, two backpacks with ceramic tile and a GoPro camera in the bushes at the scene.
The FBI and U.S. Secret Service are investigating the incident, which the FBI said “appears to be an attempted assassination of former President Trump.”
As the investigation continues, here’s what we know about Routh:
A decades-long criminal history
Routh’s most recent address is listed in Hawaii, but he spent most of his life in North Carolina, according to property records. Routh owned Camp Box Honolulu, a shed-building company, according to his LinkedIn profile. The account also says that he studied at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and graduated in 1998.
Records show his problems with the law go back to the 1990s and include less serious charges, like writing bad checks. But in 2002, he was charged with a felony — possession of a weapon of mass destruction — according to North Carolina Department of Corrections records.
Between 2002 and 2010, Routh was also charged with a number of misdemeanors, including a hit-and-run accident, resisting arrest and a concealed weapons violation, records show.
Suspect criticized Trump online
Routh voted Democratic in the 2024 primary election in North Carolina, and he voted in person, according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections. He appears to be registered as an unaffiliated voter.
His X account, which has now been suspended, included a number of posts about Trump.
“@realDonaldTrump While you were my choice in 2106, I and the world hoped that president Trump would be different and better than the candidate, but we all were greatly disappointment and it seems you are getting worse and devolving,” he wrote in a June 2020 post. “I will be glad when you gone.”
He also referenced the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump in multiple posts, suggesting that President Biden and Vice President Harris should visit the injured and attend the funeral of the Pennsylvania rally-goer who was killed.
A Facebook account under Routh’s name was no longer online on Sunday evening.
Ukraine supporter
Routh was passionate about fighting for Ukraine, even traveling overseas to fight in the country’s war against Russia in 2022.
“I am coming to Ukraine from Hawaii to fight for your kids and families and democracy.. I will come and die for you,” he wrote on X.
In one post on LinkedIn, he shared a photo of himself in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital.
A CBS News review of Routh’s social media shows his pro-Ukraine views seeped into his public statements as well. He urged people, even those who didn’t have military skills, to take up arms for Ukraine. He was interviewed by several news organizations, including The New York Times and Semafor in 2023, and Newsweek Romania in 2022. He was quoted about his efforts to recruit volunteer fighters to aid Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion, though it wasn’t clear whether he had succeeded.
“This is about good versus evil,” he told Newsweek Romania.
contributed to this report.
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