The return of the two American astronauts is conditioned by the CREW-10 mission, a routine operation led by NASA and SpaceX. This was to take off last Wednesday but it was postponed due to a hydraulic problem on the launch platform. On board the Dragon Capsule of SpaceX, the crew-10 crew, composed of Nichole Ayers and Anne McClain (NASA), Takuya Onishi (Jaxa) and Kirill Peskov (Roscosmos), will join the ISS to ensure the transition with Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, which can then return to earth.
An extended stay aboard the ISS
Despite the questions about their prolonged stay, the two astronauts claim to have felt ” abandoned ». « This is what we have heard from the start: blocked, stuck, left behind, and we understand why. But this is not what our inhabited flight program represents “Said Butch Wilmore. Suni Williams, who became commander of the ISS last September, adopted a similar approach: “ I love being here. Every day, even routine tasks become funny ».
However, this discrepancy took a political turn. Donald Trump said the two astronauts had been ” abandoned in space », An assertion largely denied by NASA and the main interested parties. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and closer adviser to the American president, even assured that his company had proposed a mission of repatriation earlier, a suggestion that the American space agency would have refused. However, according to Lori Garver, former assistant administrator of NASA, such an initiative would not have made sense financially and logistically: ” Accelerating a mission to repatriate Wilmore and Williams would have cost hundreds of millions of dollars. »
Beyond the controversies, this episode highlights the difficulty for Boeing to catch up in the commercial space flight sector. The Starliner, who was originally to bring the astronauts back to earth, experienced several failures, including helium leaks and propulsion problems. These incidents led NASA to decide to get it in empty, while Wilmore and Williams were reassigned to a SpaceX flight.
This hitch strengthens the domination of SpaceX, which remains the main supplier of NASA for inhabited flights to the ISS. “” It’s disappointing not having a reliable second supplier “Said Lori Garver, recalling that competition is essential for the development of commercial space stations and cost reduction.
For the time being, Wilmore and Williams are waiting for their return. Once Crew-10 in place, they will have embarked on a dragon capsule already present on the ISS since September. Their landing on Earth will mark the end of an extended mission which, if it has challenged expectations, does not seem to have started their enthusiasm for spatial exploration.
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