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While not technically "marooned," given there are regular crew and supply voyages that could return them at a later date, the pair of astronauts were forced to stretch their stay on the ISS from two weeks to, now, a minimum of nine months.
The astronauts have since joined Crew-9, a mission from SpaceX launched to the ISS to carry the two astronauts back home .
Crew-9 was originally planned to return to earth in February, but NASA announced in December it will delay the Crew-10 launch, which is set to replace Crew-9.
Crew-10 is being delayed by a month, meaning the astronauts should return to Earth in March if there are no further delays.
2025 will be the year the European Space Agency ( ESA ) begins analyzing Earth's ecosystems from space.
The FLuorescence EXplorer (FLEX) mission will provide global maps of plant health and stress. FLEX has a 3 1/2 year design lifetime from launch.
The satellite will include new instruments capable of measuring photosynthetic activity from space for the first time. The instrument, called FLORIS, will measure vegetation fluorescence to record photosynthesis on a mass scale to provide better understanding of how plant ecosystems affect the global carbon cycle.
A separate ESA mission launching in 2025 will also analyze Earth's forests. The Biomass mission will measure information about the state of our forests and how they are changing.
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