NASA’s astronauts return from the long space station driven by Boeing problems

Sonita “Sony” Williams and Barry “Poach” Willmour returned to Earth after a nine-month stay at the International Space Station-a trip that lasted for a long longer than the planned in the first place thanks to Leaks and fluctuation problems On the Boeing Starliner spacecraft they used to get there.

William and Wilmmore set out in the Gulf of Mexico in the dragon capsule at Spacex at 5:57 pm East time on Tuesday, after a 17 -hour return trip from ISS.

Their return is the end of one of the strange seasons in the history of the last space transport, thanks to the problems that Starlener faced from Boeing and the way Elon Musk, CEO of Spacex, was politicized.

Williams and Wilmore were initially launched at the International Space Station (ISS) in June 2024 as part of a mission that was decisive to Boeing’s attempt to compete against Spacex. The Aviation Beheemoth team won a contract next to Spacex in 2014 to send astronauts to NASA’s International Space Station, eventually taking into account their pregnancy further to the solar system.

Spacex performed it The first crew trip With the Dragon Crew spacecraft in 2020 – during the first days of the Covid epidemic. Meanwhile, the Boeing’s Starliner project has been withdrawn Cost violations And delay.

The journey in June 2024 was supposed to help look at all of this. The goal was to send Williams and Wilmmore to ISS and then return them home after a short stay. But Starliner suffered from problems even before it was studied with ISS. Once they finally arrived on board, NASA and Boeing spent a few weeks in testing before it decided to return Starliner without astronauts.

NASA soon started working with Spacex on a plan to restore Willams and Wilmore. After some back and forth, they decided to wait until early 2025 to bring the duo to the house so that ISS is not postponed.

In recent months, though, Musk claimed (without providing any evidence) that he offered to return astronauts to the home earlier – and that former President Joe Biden rejected the offer because he would help his political rival Donald Trump.

The former official in NASA and the deputy official under Biden both of them He said The space agency was not aware of any show. CNN It was mentioned on Tuesday Senior White House officials also claim that they were not aware of any offer.

Watch the team Return to Earth: