| > Are those on stand-by ready to go? Good News: There's no real risk to them remaining on ISS at this point, short of some major incident on the ISS itself which required immediate evacuation. Less good: Even if Boeing had a spare Starliner (they don't), they don't have a spare rocket to put it on. Even if Boeing had a spare fully stacked Starliner + Rocket, I'm not sure anyone (even Boeing) would trust their process to be agile enough to launch a recovery mission any time soon. So that leaves Russia's Soyuz and SpaceX's Crew Dragon. Using Soyuz would be a major political headache, aside from anything else. It'd require scrapping the next planned Soyuz mission - it may take several months to get that ready. I believe they have to (and would) have to send it up manned. Using Crew Dragon may be possible, No idea on where SpaceX is as with having refurbished/ready to go capsules on hand, but they have enough launch cadence that it may be possible. Space Suits then become a problem - they're specific to each launch vehicle, and customised for each wearer. So lead times there become an issue. |
Soyuz can be launched to the ISS with no crew. The Russians sent up a Soyuz with no crew a few years ago when the Soyuz they used to get up there stared leaking.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_MS-23
(Of course it probably would launch manned because they would only be picking up 2 people)