Also docked to the space station is SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule that ferried four astronauts to the ISS in March, and a Russian Soyuz capsule that delivered three others in September. Stich acknowledged that at least one of those vehicles could provide an alternative ride home for Wilmore and Williams.
You’d have to convince russia to cancel a crewed mission to free up a spacecraft for that.
I’d put money on the upcoming august Crew-9 flight of a Crew Dragon to become the rescue craft. It’s scheduled to have four crew fly to the ISS for a 6-month mission, but I think NASA would probably fly it up with just the commander and pilot, and let the two “stranded” astronauts fill the roles of the two mission specialists for the full mission length.
The Crew Dragon is theoretically capable of flying 7 crew, but that seat configuration has never actually been used on any orbital flights, and there’s no way in hell NASA authorizes a major modification to a crew vehicle just weeks before it’s due to launch.
Interestingly enough, if the two Crew-9 mission specialists are bumped off the flight, there are geopolitical-tension consequences. One of the mission specialists is Russian. NASA and Roscosmos have miraculously maintained a cordial working relationship despite waves hands around in general.
Most likely they’ll come back in the boeing ship eventually, but if they have to be rescued, it’ll be a significant money and time cost to whoever does it. I don’t think russia is looking to do a huge favor for america that probably wouldn’t be returned.
