Nasa astronauts heading back to Earth on SpaceX Dragon capsule after being ‘stranded’ on ISS for months | Nasa
Two NASA pioneers “cut off” on board the International Space Station (ISS) since last summer, on their way back to Earth on Tuesday, more than nine months of The leading Starliner capsule failed in Boeing Scooper, their mission, originally destroyed for a week.
A Spacex Dragon capsule that contains four astronauts, including Starliner Sunita Williams and Barry “butch” Wilmore, which was canceled from the external focus at 1.05 am (5.05 am GMT). The spacecraft is scheduled to fall somewhere off the coast of Florida at approximately 6 pm East time after a 17 -hour descending, with task managers determining the exact location after evaluating the weather conditions.
William and Wilmmore I got to ISS On June 6 last year, she intends to stay long enough to assess the cohesion and operational capabilities of Starliner during her first flight and return home after more than 10 days.
But a series of technical issues and safety fears led NASA and Boeing to Send the capsule back to the ground empty In September, the husband’s residence was expanded by making crew members on the space station instead of other astronauts who were still on Earth, who were resetting to other future missions.
In the following months, Odyssean became a bit of political football, with the founder of Spacex and Donald Trump Akolit Illon Musk insists without evidence of “giving up” by the Biden administration, and Trump’s attempt to paint last week Routine crew rotation trip As a special rescue task that the White House ordered.
The repercussions left astronauts at an embarrassing site, where Willmour told reporters from space earlier this month that Musk’s demand that he offered to return them to the home last year, but was rejected by Joe Biden, was “completely realistic”, while he admitted: “We have no information about … what was presented, what was not presented, who was presented to that, and how this process was.”
So far in February He told CNN: “We do not feel deserted, we do not feel stumbling, nor do we feel a fullness.
Musk, Meanwhile, became Involved With the Danish astronauts and astronauts Andreas Moginsen, who accused him of lying, and pointed out that the return of Tuesday Williams and Wilmore, along with their colleagues in ISS 9, was scheduled to take over their colleagues at ISS American Nicholas Hague and the Russian astronaut Aleksandr Gorbunov since September.
In response, MUSK posted on the X X platform that Magensen was “completely backward”, prompting him to deepen with retired astronauts, brothers, his brothers Scott and Mark Kelly, who defended their European colleague.
Bad blood continued, as Musk Mark Kelly called for the democratic Senator of Arizona, a “traitor” to visit Ukraine and urge American and humanitarian support to the country in its war against Russia; The politician who restores the musk was not a “serious man”. Kelly also has Get rid of his car TeslaWhich were manufactured by Musk companies, in protest against the role of billionaire in reducing federal budgets and employees.
The splash is scheduled to change on Tuesday for 5.57 pm East time, but it is likely to change depending on the evaluation of weather and sea conditions before burning the final orbit in the dragon and re -entering the Earth’s atmosphere.
According to the schedule It was published on NASAThe four astronauts were appointed 9 to enter the capsule at 10.45 pm East time, or more than two hours before their hour. Williams and Wilmmore will notice NASA astronaut Nick The Hague and Rosskosmos, Alexander Gorbonov.
The direct coverage of the final stages of landing, including Splashdown and Crew Recovery, will be broadcast on NASA and the new broadcast service NASA+Followed by a later press conference.
The future of the Starlener capsule, which was developed as part of the NASA’s commercial crew program, is still uncertain. Engineers examined space vehicles in their white sands, New Mexico, trying to find the cause of the problems that arose during the journey before marriage, including weight issues and a series of small helium leakage.
I mentioned the flight week Starliner is unlikely to fly again in 2025, but the company kept confidence in its product and was working to obtain a new certificate to prepare.
