Donald Trump, the new US president, has asked Spacex, company of Elon Musk, to bring back the two ‘trapped’ astronauts at the International Space Station (ISS) since June after failures occur in the Boeing Starliner ship They first manned. The richest man in the world has confirmed in his social network X that he will do it “as soon as possible”, without giving more details, while taking advantage of the previous administration driving that the couple has remained there “so long,” which has described as “terrible.” The return of astronauts was already scheduled for March in a Spacex capsule, so these words, if they do not stay in mere propaganda, seem to suggest that the return could be advanced.
“I just asked Elon Musk and Spacex to ‘go to look for the two brave astronauts who have been practically abandoned in space by the Biden administration,” Trump wrote in Truth Social. «They have been waiting for many months at the space station. Elon will soon be on his way. With luck, everything will be safe. Good luck, Elon!
His requirement that Spacex will recover the NASA Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore and Sunita Williams. NASA who took many agency officials by surprise, as two of them have explained to the Reuters agency. A NASA spokesman did not immediately respond to comments requests.
The @Potus You have Asked @Spacex to bring home the 2 astronauts strand on the @Space_station so ons possible. We Will do So.
Terrible that The Biden Administration Left Them they So Long.
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 28, 2025
Wilmore and Williams flew aboard the Starliner to the ISS last June for an eight -day test mission that was going to be a gigantic milestone for Boeing, which intended to turn its ship into a kind of space taxi. However, the ship suffered technical problems during the flight, so NASA decided that it was too risky for astronauts to use it to return to earth. The capsule returned empty in September, while the couple was waiting to be rescued in a Crew Dragon.
The Spacex ship flew to the ISS in September for NASA’s crew-9 astronaut rotation mission, with empty seats for Wilmore and Williams. In principle, both would return in February, but the return was delayed until the end of March because Spacex needed more time “to complete the processing” of a new Crew Dragon capsule for the CREW-10 mission. The agency has a traveling program to the ISS delicately coordinated, and an anticipated return could leave the American contingent of the station with little personal.
It is not clear if Trump’s demand means that NASA will bring the CREW-9 back to Earth before the CREW-10 capsule arrives, or that Spacex will launch the CREW-10 earlier than planned.
The return of the CREW-9 to the Earth before the arrival of the CREW-10 would mean that NASA’s astronaut Don Petit, who flew to the ISS with a Russian crew in September, would be the only American aboard the station , an uncommon staff imbalance that, according to NASA, complicates the maintenance of the American components of the station.
Wilmore and Williams are among the seven astronauts in the ISS and remain healthy and occupied with scientific research on board the station, according to NASA.
Although Starliner’s development since 2019 has been a constant challenge for Boeing, plagued by engineering and cost overruns, in recent months some Trump advisors have tried to blame former President Biden, although he has not participated in the project.
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