Spacex successfully launched four people in space on Friday, starting a mission that will give the International Space Station enough crew members to allow astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to return to the ground after their nine months stay.
The mission, known as Crew-10, will see the Bank of the Spacex Dragon Ship with the International Space Station (ISS) late Saturday. The new astronauts will overlap with the existing crew for a few days before Williams and Wilmore (along with the other two) return to our planet. This can happen immediately on March 19, weather allowing.
Spacex’s crew departure in ISS has become routine, but this mission has been highly anticipated because of how Williams and Wilmore arrived at the station in the first place – and because Spacex Elon Musk’s CEO has blamed their extended stay in former President Joe Biden.
The duo was part of the first start of the Staring’s Starliner’s Starliner ship last June. The test mission was supposed to be an essential historical moment in Boeing’s attempt to compete with Spacex for these types of omissions set out in ISS.
Starliner had to enter with ISS for 10 days before returning Williams and Wilmore to Earth. But the spaceship suffered leaks and stimulating problems, which delayed Starliner from Docking with ISS.
Starliner was finally accompanied by the station and the astronauts were able to ride. But Boeing and NASA spent weeks performing tests and analysis before deciding in August to bring the Starliner to the ground.
NASA and Spacex agreed to bring astronauts to the other mission of ISS, Crew-9. They slammed two astronauts outside that flight to accommodate the return of Williams and Wilmore. A return flight was planned for February 2025; An early flight would leave the ISS dissatisfied, according to NASA.
While Williams and Wilmore have been on board the ISS, though Musk helped Donald Trump a second time and began his government efficiency department. Musk began to say – both in X and in interviews – that he offered to return astronauts earlier, but Biden refused for political reasons.
Musk has not provided any evidence to support this claim. Former Administrator and Deputy Administrator of NASA under Biden have said that no offer from Musk did not make it at the space agency headquarters.
