Elon Musk says SpaceX will bring home astronauts that he claims were left ‘stranded’— but NASA announced that plan months ago
In a post on the social media platform X, the CEO of Spacex El MUSK on Tuesday claimed that the Biden administration left the astronauts “cut off” and said that President Donald Trump had asked Spacex to intervene to save them.
But NASA has already put such a plan in its place months ago when Spacex requested the return of astronauts, Sony Williams and Bush Wilmor from the International Space Station as part of its mission 9. It was a delay in that plan at the time Announced Because the mission teams said they need more time to prepare a new Spacex.
“the potus to request Spacex To bring astronauts 2, they were cut off on Space_station as soon as possible. We’ll do that, “Musk’s mail Read. “Biden administration has left them there for a long time.”
NASA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
While Williams and Wilmmore put it unusual, with astronauts’ inability to return home in the Boeing spacecraft that took them to the space station, the return trip will be relatively routine, as they are scheduled to fly home with other astronauts as part of the crew rotation Al -Makdul.
Williams and Wilmmore experienced the first mission of the Boeing Stralen Steller’s spacecraft, which was launched from Florida in June 2024 and witnessed a rock trip to ISS. Astron’s astronauts were scheduled to spend about a week in the orbits laboratory.
NASA Poach Space Pioneers Wilmor and Sony Williams, Boeing Air Test Commander, respectively, examined the safety devices on the International Space Station on August 9, 2024. – NASA
After Starliner arrived at the space station, NASA and Boeing worked for weeks to better understand problems – including helium leakage and payment issues – which were afflicted with the first station of the test mission.
NASA eventually decided that it was very risking to return Starlener with a crew. And the agency announced last August that it was asking Spacex to bring Williams and Wilmore to the Spacex Crew-9 capsule. This car is currently being held with the space station, where Williams and Welmore are official members of ISS employees while waiting for their return.
NASA previously said that the 9 crew capsule will return to their homes with just February. But the agency has updated this schedule in December, saying that Spacex need more time to complete the capsule that you will use on the Crew-10 mission, which, after NASA’s precedence, will need to be launched before he left Crew-9 ISS. At that time, the agency said that the 9 crew will aim to return Not earlier in late March.
While admitting the presence of difficult parts of their mission, Williams and Willimore appeared in a good morale during an interview with him on January 8 with former NASA manager Bill Nelson.
“We have a lot of clothes. Wilmor said:” We are well nourished. “
“It is just a great team – no, it doesn’t feel that we are Cassoy.”
“In the end, we want to go home,” she added, because we have left our families a short time ago, but we have a lot to do while we are here. “
Williams completed a spacecraft last week, and Williams and Willimore are scheduled to leave the International Space Station for another corridor on Thursday.
“We have absolutely insisted on safety.”
Since the long operational task teams of evaluating the spacecraft issues in Starliner began – and eventually decided to bring Williams and Wilmore to the home on a Spacex capsule – NASA and Boeing officials insisted that astronauts had never penetrated.
Steve Stic, director of the NASA’s commercial crew program, noticed during a press conference last year that Williams and Wilmmore have always been the option to fly home at Starlener in an emergency, or as soon as the Crew-9 arrived, to return to the ground on that ship.
“From my point of view, they were not stuck or cut off,” Stic said. They always had a way to leave the space station. And for me, when someone accepts, there is a site they cannot leave. “
In an interview with CNN last week, Nelson, the former NASA president, spoke deeply about the decision to extend the residence of astronauts in space, stressing that the decision was taken through the safety of the astronaut in the mind – and despite Boeing’s objections.
Among the NASA leadership, the decision announced in August was announced by Williams and Wilmmore on a dragon from the SpaceX crew instead of the mouth.
Nelson said: “Pam (Melryoi, Deputy official, and) third place in NASA, Bob Kabana, has flew in space – the three of us.” “So we were all greatly affected by the experiences we went through (with Colombia and disaster competition), and as a result, we insisted absolutely as much safety as possible – and we bombed it. A message.”
“In the end, there was a dispute with Boeing. Boeing believed it was safe for them to return to Starliner. But NASA was unanimous in their saying that they should not return to Starlener,” Nelson added.
For this reason, the agency chose to bring astronauts to Spacex.
What is the following for a Bush and Sony
The Crew-9, which also includes NASA Nick Nick Hague and Russian astronauts Alexander Gorbonov among its crew, arrived at the orbital site in September. William and Wilmmore are now at the station for more than seven months, and they will have risen about nine months in space if they returned to their homes in late March or early April.
The routine tasks of the International Space Station will last six months. But it is not uncommon for astronauts to get an unexpected extension while they are in orbit – for several days, weeks, or even months.
For example, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio US record For the longest continuous stay at the space station. He spent 371 days there on a mission that ended in 2023.
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