Contrary to a recently published social media contribution by President TrumpStarliner Astronaut Sunita Williams says she and crewmate Barry “Butch” Wilmore were “practically abandoned” despite a space in space Mission that has been expanded From just more than a week to more than nine months.
“I don’t think I’m abandoned. I don’t think we will hold up here,” she told CBS Evening News-Co usage, John Dickerson, during an interview broadcast on Friday evening during the flight. “We have food. We have clothes. We drive home if something really bad happens with the international space station.
“We are in an attitude … where we have fully occupied the international space station and do what the taxpayers wanted to do world-class science. And so I feel like I said here and part of too be the team. “
The Starliner Astronaut and the commander of the Sunita William space station discuss their extended flight with the co-anel of the CBS news, John Dickerson, in a space-to-floor interview. / Credit: CBS News
NASA takes plans, Williams and Wilmore together with their two room stations Crewmates, Crew 9 Commander Nick Hague and Cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov to bring the March 19 back to earth. This would shorten your extended stay in orbit by about two weeks compared to an earlier plan for the end of March or April.
The somewhat earlier trip home would be possible if the next set of station planes, known as Crew 10, will be converted to another spaceship of the crew Dragon, which can already be ready in mid -March. The switch is required, according to sources, because the work to prepare the original SpaceX Ferry ship for his virgin takes longer than expected.
In any case, after a one-week handover to bring your crew 10 replacement for the advantages and disadvantages of the space station on the market, Hague, Gorbunov, Wilmore and Williams would return and return to Earth.
You will come home on board the same crew dragons, who carried Hague and Gorbunov to the train station last SeptemberTogether with two empty seats that are reserved for Wilmore and Williams’ return.
Starliner Commander Barry
Why the mission extended months
Suppose the data keeps – and there are several variables in the game – Wilmore and Williams have had since theirs Start June 5 In the case of a mission that will originally last a little more than a week, the time required for the first piloted test flight from Boeing’s Starliner spaceship needed.
The Starliner, who was built as part of a NASA program for the development of independent trade team ships to ferry astronauts to and from the space station, met shortly after the start of drive problems and helium cocks that triggered weeks and then months of tests and analyzes.
In the end, the NASA managers decided that the risks were too high to bring Wilmore and Williams down on board the Starliner. Instead, they decided to bring the ship down by remote control. Without his crewAnd to keep Wilmore and Williams on board the station until they were able to drive home with Haag and Gorbunov at the end of the Crew 9 Expedition.
NASA initially planned to bring all four back to earth in FebruaryBut last December, Another month Was classified for the work that the crew must prepare for the start for the start. Sources now say that more time is needed to end this work.
Wilmore and Williams prepare a meal on board the international space station. / Credit: NASA
Trump expresses the delay of the crew
President Trump accused the general mission of the Starliner crew for the Biden administration last month and said in a social media administration. “He also called Musk, a billionaire fan The Trump campaign too Head The Department of Government Efficiency or Movement, which is charged with Cut the size of the federal government.
Musk said in an earlier contribution in his social media platform X that Mr. Trump had asked SpaceX to bring the Starliner astronauts home as quickly as possible, and added: “We will do this. Terrible that the Biden administration has left it there for as long. “
The then administrator of NASA, Bill Nelson, was appointed by the Biden administration, but the decision to expand the Mission of the Starliner Crew was made by the Commercial Crew and the international space programs of the agency. The plan has been available since the last September last September when the Crew 9 Dragon was started with two empty seats for Wilmore and Williams.
Therefore, the astronauts don’t have to “get” – their journey home has been docked in the space station in the past five months.
“We don’t feel left. We feel part of the team.”
In the interview, Dickerson Williams asked about the comments of the President about her mission.
“Trump said, she and Butch Wilmore, who is her Starliner crewmate, were – these are the words of the president – ‘practically” “, asked Dickerson. “Do you feel left up there, Commander?”
“I don’t think these words are pretty accurate,” replied Williams. “Both Butch and I have already lived here on the space station. We know how NASA and our commercial partners work together. So we expected that we would be up here for a while.
“We are part of something larger than us. Pass, no, we don’t feel left.
Wilmore and Williams go on a pose on board the international space station. / Credit: NASA
Asked why the dragon of the crew 9 could not return to earth earlier, since it is already docked at the train station two cosmonauts on board a Russian Soyuz room.
Since only a single US astronaut reacts to emergencies on board, power, life preservation and other systems in the NASA segment of the station, research would bring a standstill with a high priority. The standard practice is that NASA starts a replacement team about a week before the crew departed for a proper handover.
“Sure, it could have brought us home, but that only leaves three people on the space station of the Soyuz crew, two Russians and one American,” said Williams. “And the space station is large, it is a building, it is the size of a soccer field.
“Things can go wrong, and they have to be able to either repair it within (or) outside, and therefore it is really important to have additional people to do this, this ability to have this ability. “
Cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov, Left and Crew 9 Commander Nick Hague, launched the international space station last September. Together with the Starliner -astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, they are expected to return to Earth next month. / Credit: NASA
NASA has temporarily decided to switch to another crew 9 the crew 10 leaflets – commander Anne McClain, Pilot Nichol Ayers, Japan’s Takuya Onishi and Cosmonaut Kirill Peskov – to avoid that the already expanded mission of the crew 9 Time added.
The crew 10 is expected to be assigned to a crew kite that was intended for a commercial flight to the train station, a mission known as AX-4, which was booked by the Houston-based Axiom Space. Instead, this non-NASA crew would use the original crew 10 dragon in spring.
NASA would not comment on the plans. One spokeswoman said: “We cannot confirm any details on the return of Crew 9 at this time. We work by coordinating Forward plans for the agency’s Commercial Crew program missions with their various stakeholders. We will quickly share more information . “
Williams said she just wanted “the right decision, in the best interest of all of us from crew 10 and to meet us. I am happy one way or a such thing. , it is not really important.
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