NASA decided it was too risky to use the Boeing Starliner capsule to bring Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams back to Earth due to a series of technical glitches on their outbound trip.
Two astronauts were stranded International Space Stationsince December We are one step closer to home with the arrival of the SpaceX capsule. Elon Musk’s company launched Saturday rescue mission In the afternoon, two empty seats were reserved for the reduced crew of two astronauts and Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who will return to Earth in February.
NASA They moved Wilmore and Williams to SpaceX concerns about Boeing Starliner capsule safety They were traveling to the ISS.
This was Starliner’s first test flight with a crew, but NASA decided that the thruster failures and helium leaks that occurred after liftoff were too serious and poorly understood. risk of return of pilots test.
Starliner returned to Earth empty earlier this month
Dragon, carrying NASA’s Nick Hague and the Russian Space Agency’s Alexander Gorbunov, will remain at the space station until February, turning what was supposed to be a week-long journey into an adventure for Wilmore and Williams. a mission that lasted more than eight months.
Two NASA astronauts dismissed to make room for Wilmore and Williams on the return trip. “I want to welcome our new comrades,” space station commander Williams said as Hague and Gorbunov walked in and were embraced by nine waiting astronauts.
NASA likes to rotate station crews every six months. provided by SpaceX taxi service from the company’s first astronaut flight 2020.
NASA also leased Boeing for shuttle flights after the space shuttles were retired, but faulty software and other Starliner problems caused years of delays and more than $1 billion (900 million euros) in repairs.
las inspections Inspections of Starliner are ongoing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, and post-flight data reviews will begin this week.
