NASA affirms plan with SpaceX to return astronauts after Trump demand

Astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore forward of the primary crewed flight take a look at of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft.
| Photograph Credit score: PTI/File photograph
NASA has affirmed a plan it set final yr to work with Elon Musk’s SpaceX in returning two astronauts from the Worldwide House Station, saying it would achieve this “as quickly as sensible,” the day after President Donald Trump advised he needs a faster return for the crew.
On Tuesday night time, Trump stated he had requested Elon Musk’s SpaceX to return two NASA astronauts from the Worldwide House Station, who have been already scheduled to fly again on a SpaceX capsule in March.
Earlier, Musk stated Trump had requested him to return the 2 astronauts “as quickly as doable,” suggesting a change to NASA’s present plan for a late March return. “We are going to achieve this,” Musk stated.
“I’ve simply requested Elon Musk and @SpaceX to ‘go get’ the two courageous astronauts who’ve been just about deserted in house by the Biden Administration,” Trump wrote on Reality Social. “They’ve been ready for a lot of months on @House Station. Elon will quickly be on his means. Hopefully, all will likely be protected. Good luck Elon!!!”
The astronauts have been left on the ISS due to issues with Boeing’s Starliner capsule, which led NASA in August to faucet SpaceX for his or her return as a substitute. Former President Joe Biden and his White Home had no involvement within the company’s decision-making on the mission.
Trump’s demand that SpaceX retrieve veteran NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who’ve been assigned a SpaceX experience residence since August, was an uncommon intervention by a U.S. president into NASA’s operations that caught many company officers without warning, two officers stated.
Wilmore and Williams are amongst seven astronauts on the ISS, and so they stay wholesome and busy with routine scientific analysis aboard the station, NASA has stated.
A spokesperson with NASA, which oversees SpaceX’s flights to the ISS, stated “NASA and SpaceX are expeditiously working to securely return the company’s SpaceX Crew-9 astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore as quickly as sensible, whereas additionally making ready for the launch of Crew-10 to finish a handover between expeditions.”
Wilmore and Williams flew Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft to the ISS final summer time for an eight-day take a look at mission that as a substitute has lasted practically a yr due to issues with the craft’s propulsion system.
NASA in August, throughout Biden’s administration, deemed Starliner too dangerous to carry them again to Earth and tapped SpaceX to return them on a Crew Dragon spacecraft.
That craft is already docked with the house station, having flown there for NASA’s Crew-9 astronaut rotation mission in September with empty seats for Wilmore and Williams.
The astronauts’ unique February departure date on Crew-9 was delayed to late March as a result of SpaceX wanted extra time “to finish processing” of a brand new Crew Dragon capsule that can change theirs for the Crew-10 mission, NASA stated in December.
The company has a carefully coordinated ISS schedule, and an early Crew-9 return may depart the station’s U.S. contingent understaffed.
It had been unclear whether or not Trump’s demand would imply NASA bringing Crew-9 again to Earth earlier than the Crew-10 capsule arrives, or SpaceX launching Crew-10 sooner than deliberate. Whereas NASA appeared to affirm the astronaut’s return plan stays unchanged, it didn’t reply a query on whether or not the Crew-10 launch date can be sooner.
Returning Crew-9 to Earth earlier than Crew-10’s arrival would imply NASA astronaut Don Pettit, who flew to the ISS with a Russian crew in September, can be the one American aboard the station, a uncommon staffing imbalance that NASA has stated complicates upkeep of the station’s U.S. parts.
Although Starliner’s growth since 2019 has been a persistent problem for Boeing, rife with engineering troubles and price overruns, some Trump advisers in current months have sought in charge Biden, though the previous president had no involvement in Starliner’s growth.
NASA since 2020 has used SpaceX’s Crew Dragon to ferry U.S. astronauts to and from the Worldwide House Station. The spacecraft was developed beneath a greater than $3 billion NASA contract beneath the company’s Industrial Crew Program, a program created beneath former U.S. president Barack Obama.
Boeing’s Starliner was developed beneath the identical program in a roughly $4.5 billion contract however has confronted uncrewed testing mishaps and an array of engineering challenges.
Wilmore and Williams’ mission marked Starliner’s first crewed flight and was meant to be its ultimate take a look at earlier than it conducts routine missions. However Starliner’s propulsion system points pressured NASA to carry it again uncrewed in September and threw its growth future into uncertainty.
Revealed – February 02, 2025 09:35 am IST