Who is Nick Hague? Astronaut’s Critical Role in Bringing NASA’s Stranded Astronauts Back Home

A SpaceX capsule successfully transported four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) early on Sunday as part of NASA’s crew swap mission. This new team will replace the four astronauts currently aboard, including Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita Williams. The returning crew has spent nine months on the ISS and will soon make their journey back to Earth. 

Wilmore and Williams, who launched to the International Space Station last June on Boeing's problem-plagued Starliner capsule, will return to Earth alongside Crew 9 commander Nick Hague and cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov. Hague and Gorbunov arrived at the station last September aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. 

Hague and Gorbunov flew to the ISS in September aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft, which had two empty seats reserved for Wilmore and Williams. The spacecraft has remained docked at the station since its arrival. 

ALSO READ: Williams and Wilmore Onboard Dragon Spacecraft; Hatch Now Closed, Next Stop Earth

Who is Nick Hague? 

Colonel Nick Hague was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2013. Originally from Kansas, he obtained a Bachelor of Science in Astronautical Engineering from the United States Air Force Academy in 1998. He later earned a Master of Science in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2000. 

Hague completed his astronaut candidate training in July 2015. During his first mission to the International Space Station in 2018, he and his crewmate, Alexey Ovchinin from the Russian space agency Roscosmos, faced a serious rocket booster malfunction. This caused their Soyuz MS-10 launch to be aborted. 

Nick Hague’s Role in Bringing NASA’s Stranded Astronauts Back Home   

Hague alongside Williams participated in two spacewalks—US spacewalk 91 on January 16, and US spacewalk 92 on January 23.  Nick Hague’s work on the ISS included repairs to NASA’s NICER X-ray telescope and updates to the Canadarm2 robotic arm.  

In 2019, Hague launched to the International Space Station aboard Soyuz MS-12 and spent 203 days as a flight engineer during Expeditions 59 and 60. Between 2020 and 2022, he completed a developmental rotation with the United States Space Force, serving as the new military service’s Director of Test and Evaluation at The Pentagon in Washington, D.C. He returned to NASA in August 2022 to contribute to the Boeing Starliner Programme. For his second mission to the ISS, Hague launched as commander of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission on September 28, alongside crewmate Aleksandr Gorbunov. Both are currently flight engineers on the space station, taking part in a long-duration science expedition. 

ALSO READ: Who Are The Other 2 Astronauts Returning To Earth Along With Sunita Williams And Butch Wilmore