The two astronauts who have been stranded in space for months at the International Space Station wo n’t return until Elon Musk’s SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft launches in February, according to NASA’s announcement on Saturday. The decision comes amid growing fears over Boeing’s Starliner aircraft.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson made the announcement on Saturday, according to a NASA hit release, confirming that pilots Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams will be stop until February.
Through February 2025, Williams and Wilmore will continue their work as members of the Expedition 71/72 team, according to the press release. They may travel home on a Dragon spacecraft with two different SpaceX Crew-9 team members. Starliner is scheduled to leave the room station in early September and create a healthy, automatic re-entry and getting.
Nelson, who made the decision on Saturday, explained that” flight is dangerous” and that the decision to keep the two pilots on the International Space Station for a few more weeks rather than attempt to have them returning on the Boeing Starliner was a “result of a responsibility to health.”
NASA’s choice, according to NBC News, comes after weeks of rumors regarding the transfer of the two stranded pilots, who were only supposed to spend almost eight days in space.
Addressing Saturday’s selection, NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free said,” This has not been an easy decision, but it is definitely the right one”.
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Gwynne Shotwell, the president and COO of SpaceX, tweeted:” SpaceX stands ready to support NASA wherever we can.” Following the announcement on Saturday that the pilots had been returning on a SpaceX aircraft.
According to NBC News, Steve Stich, the director of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, explained that while Boeing officers had expressed confidence in the bank’s plane, NASA’s decision to have the stranded pilots wait to return until February was unequivocal.
” There was just too much confusion in the projection of the jets”, Stich stated. I believe we would have chosen a different course of action if we had a design [if] we had a way to accurately determine what the propellers would do for the undock and all the way through the de-orbit fire, through the separation format.
Boeing stated in a statement that addressed NASA’s decision to keep the pilots at the International Space Station while the Boeing Starliner returns unarmed in September that” we continue to focus, first and foremost, on the health of the staff and aircraft. We are executing the quest as instructed by NASA, and we are getting the spacecraft ready for a secure and prosperous uncrewed return.
