Latest news with #SpaceXCrew-9
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Unravelling claims Biden abandoned NASA astronauts in space for political gain
U.S. President Donald Trump and his adviser, Elon Musk, have repeatedly claimed that former President Joe Biden left NASA's Boeing Starliner astronauts Sunita "Suni" Williams and Barry "Butch" Wilmore in space for political gain. Trump has claimed efforts to transport the astronauts home began with his own administration. Musk also alleged, in multiple instances, that his astronautics company, SpaceX, offered to bring the astronauts back but were refused by the Biden administration. During a March 14 news conference, a NASA administrator said he "can't give a lot of clarity" about these purported conversations, but that NASA is a nonpartisan agency that "gets support from whoever's in office." However, the evidence suggests NASA was working on the Starliner crew's return to Earth as early as August 2024 and delays were due to safety concerns and technical difficulties. In fact, the SpaceX Crew-9, which brought the astronauts home on March 18, 2025, docked at the International Space Station in September 2024, months before Trump entered office and supposedly appointed Musk to oversee the rescue mission. The original announcement, dated August 2024, said Williams and Wilmore would "continue their work" on the ISS "through February 2025," suggesting it was always the plan for the crew to fly home in early 2025. While Wilmore said Musk's comments were "factual," he also said he had no information on any politically motivated delays, nor did he see any evidence of that from his perspective, suggesting he had no proof regarding the truth of Musk's statements. In a statement about Wilmore's and Williams' return, NASA's acting administrator, Janet Petro, said: "Per President Trump's direction, NASA and SpaceX worked diligently to pull the schedule a month earlier." Finally, there is no credible evidence that the Biden administration deliberately left the astronauts in space, nor is there documented proof that Biden turned down an offer from Musk's SpaceX to bring them home earlier. After astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams finally landed back on Earth in the spring of 2025 — following a nine-month space odyssey that was meant to last little more than a week — rumors continued to spread that former U.S. President Joe Biden had chosen to leave them stranded in orbit and refused help from Elon Musk's SpaceX to bring them home. The first crewed test flight for the Boeing Starliner spacecraft launched on June 5, 2024, during Biden's administration. Since Trump's second term began in January 2025, he and his adviser Musk repeatedly claimed that after the capsule malfunctioned, Biden abandoned Williams and Wilmore and did not instruct NASA, the federal space agency, to bring them back. Musk also said the former president had declined the tech mogul's offer to retrieve the astronauts earlier. Social media users on various sites, including Musk's social media platform X and TikTok and Instagram, spread the rumor. In April, weeks after the astronauts returned, one X user responded to an interview Wilmore gave – in which he said he watched church services every week while in space – by writing: "Biden Abandoned the USA Astronauts in Space." Wilmore's daughter, Daryn Wilmore, broached the subject on TikTok, saying the delay to her dad's return was linked to "a lot of politics" and "negligence," but she couldn't say more because she didn't "know fully" what happened. Snopes readers wrote in to ask whether posts about these claims were true. Evidence suggests that — contrary to Trump's and Musk's assertions that they were responsible for finally retrieving the astronauts — NASA was discussing how to facilitate the Starliner crew's return as early as August 2024, and that the SpaceX capsule that brought them back was not only docked at the ISS by September 2024 but scheduled for an early 2025 return. We could find no documented proof to corroborate Musk's claim that he offered to rescue the astronauts earlier. In lieu of answering detailed questions, a NASA spokesperson, Joshua Finch, sent links to two of the agency's hourlong news conferences. In the first, on March 14, a reporter asked if NASA leadership could give "any clarity" on "claims that the previous administration refused to bring home the Starliner astronauts despite an offer being made." NASA's space operations associate administrator, Kenneth Bowersox, replied that he could not give "a lot of clarity there." "Those discussions, I wasn't part of, so I can't tell you if they did happen or didn't happen," Bowersox said (see 35:31). "All I can tell you is NASA is an incredible nonpartisan agency. We get support from whoever is in office. Our presidents always care a lot about what happens at NASA, and it's great to see that trend continue with our current president." Musk, SpaceX and Trump did not immediately return requests for comment. It was not possible to reach Biden; inquiries left with former Vice President Kamala Harris' office were not returned as of this writing. Here is a rundown of how the astronauts' long-beleaguered stay on the ISS – and the mission to rescue them – developed over the course of two presidencies. Trump, on his social media platform Truth Social, claimed in a March 17, 2025, post that he brought the astronauts home "long prior to the two week period originally approved by NASA," and that efforts to bring them home began when he asked Musk to "go up and get the abandoned astronauts because the Biden Administration was incapable of doing so." (Trump appeared to be referencing a prior timeline to bring the astronauts home a month later, although it is not entirely clear.) (Truth Social @realDonaldTrump) It was the latest in a string of claims from him (see 44:31) and Musk that they had "taken on the project" of bringing Williams and Wilmore home. Musk has repeatedly claimed SpaceX offered to bring the astronauts back under the Biden administration — but was rejected for "political reasons" because they didn't want to make him, as a Trump supporter, "look good." For example, see his Feb. 20, 2025, comments at the Conservative Political Action Conference (see 26:13) and his Feb. 28 comments on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast (see 1:23:34). Musk even got into a spat on Feb. 20 with a Danish astronaut, Andreas Mogensen, about this claim after Mogensen accused Musk of lying during a Feb. 19 Fox News interview, in which Musk and Trump both claim the astronauts were left in space by Biden (see 14:53). In response to Morgensen, Musk said "SpaceX could have brought them back several months ago. I OFFERED THIS DIRECTLY to the Biden administration and they refused. Return WAS pushed back for political reasons." Despite Trump's and Musk's claims that they were responsible for setting a rescue plan in motion, documentation from NASA reveals that the plan to get Williams and Wilmore home had been in discussion as early as August 2024. Starliner's technical problems began before its liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, but it was the issues it encountered before even docking at the ISS on June 6 that forced Williams and Wilmore to stay at the ISS. At first, NASA announced a steady stream of delays to the Starliner crew's return via teleconferences and news releases. The space agency cited the need to review technical issues, avoid other preplanned ISS spacewalks, or conduct additional testing (see 4:59). By Aug. 7, NASA officials acknowledged in a news conference that the Starliner crew may need to come home on a different spacecraft and discussed leaving two empty seats on the upcoming launch of the Dragon spacecraft – which was built by SpaceX and assigned to NASA's Crew-9 mission. Bowersox, NASA's space operations administrator, said (see 7:47): Our decision-making process at NASA can run really fast or it can take a while. What you find is that the speed of the decision can vary with the clarity of the information you're working with, the amount of uncertainty in the problem, the time that you have available, and the number of options that you have to deal with issues. If you talk Starliner in particular, we're in a – kind of a new situation here in that we've got multiple options. We don't just have to bring a crew back on Starliner, for example, we could bring them back on another vehicle. On Aug. 24, NASA announced Boeing's Starliner would return to Earth without Williams and Wilmore, and that the two astronauts would instead fly home aboard the SpaceX Dragon Crew-9 capsule. "The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring Boeing's Starliner home uncrewed is the result of our commitment to safety: our core value and our North Star," said then-NASA administrator Bill Nelson. The SpaceX Crew-9 tasked with bringing Williams and Wilmore home docked at the ISS on Sept. 29, 2024 – months before Trump supposedly entrusted Musk with the rescue mission. It was stated in the original announcement that Williams and Wilmore would stay at the ISS to "continue their work formally as part of the Expedition 71/72 crew through February 2025," suggesting that it was a long-standing plan for the Starliner crew to fly back home in early 2025. (NASA took advantage of the extended time in space, asking astronauts to complete various experiments and research, including on stem cell technology, lighting systems and sleep rhythms.) Indeed, NASA's descriptions of Expedition 71 and Expedition 72 show that they were planned to run consecutively, the first from April 5, 2024, until Sept. 23, 2024, and the second from Sept. 23, 2024, until "Spring 2025." "If I step back to last year, this has been nine months in the making," said Steve Stich, NASA's commercial crew program manager, during a March 18 news conference on the astronauts' return (see 8:30). In a series of interviews from space, Wiliams and Wilmore addressed the rumors about their situation. In February 2025, CNN news anchor Anderson Cooper asked them if — as Trump had asserted — they had been "abandoned" by Biden (see 03:34, or archived here). Wilmore responded: We don't feel abandoned, we don't feel stuck, we don't feel stranded. I understand why others may think that. We come prepared, we come committed [...] So, if you'll help us change the rhetoric, help us change the narrative, let's change it to prepared and committed. A little more than two weeks before their flight home, Williams and Wilmore held an "in-orbit" news conference in which they fielded questions as to whether it was true Musk had offered to bring them back earlier. Wilmore said, "From my standpoint, politics is not playing into this at all" in response to a question about the timing of his return. When a Washington Post reporter asked again whether it was true Musk offered an earlier return, Wilmore appeared to contradict himself: I can only say that Mr. Musk, what he says is absolutely factual. I have no – we have no information on that though, whatsoever. What was offered, what was not offered, who it was offered to, how [those] processes went — that's information that we simply don't have. So I believe him, I don't know all those details and I don't think any of us can really give you the answer that maybe you would be hoping for. His comments suggest that he had no official proof that Musk had offered to bring them home earlier, or that Biden had refused that offer for any reason. A reporter for The Times of London alluded to some of these unfounded claims in NASA's March 18 news conference, asking why the organization had not "pushed back more emphatically" against a "fictitious narrative" surrounding the mission and "against the use of astronauts by one of its commercial contractors as political pawns." "Oftentimes, there may be things out in the press that may not be exactly what's happening," replied Joel Montalbano, a deputy associate administrator at NASA (see 51:47). "Our job is to fly these missions, and regardless of what you read in the press, our job is to fly successful missions, safe missions, and do the science we do onboard the International Space Station." However, NASA's acting administrator, Janet Petro, whom Trump appointed to the role in January, said in a statement shortly after the astronauts' splash-landing off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, that "per President Trump's direction, NASA and SpaceX worked diligently to pull the schedule a month earlier." "This international crew and our teams on the ground embraced the Trump Administration's challenge of an updated, and somewhat unique, mission plan, to bring our crew home," she added. On March 31, 2025 — around two weeks after Williams and Wilmore landed — Williams and Wilmore sat down for an interview with Bill Hemmer, co-anchor of Fox News' "America's Newsroom" show. Referencing their February interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper, in which Wilmore had said they did not feel "abandoned," "stuck" or "stranded," Hemmer then asked if they had been "marooned" (see 08:40). Wilmore reiterated that they did not feel abandoned and even went as far as to take some responsibility himself: Okay, so, any of those — any of those adjectives, they're very broad in their definition. So, okay, in certain respects we were stuck, in certain respects maybe we were stranded. But based on how they were couching this — that we were left and forgotten and all — we were nowhere near any of that, at all. So, "stuck" — okay we didn't get to come home the way we planned. So, in one definition we're stuck but in the big scheme of things, we weren't stuck. We were planned, trained — but let me comment back on this other [assertion that], you know, "they failed you." Who's they? There are many questions that, as the commander of CFT [crew flight test], I didn't ask. So, I'm culpable. I'll admit that to the nation. Anderson Cooper 360. ""We Don't Feel Abandoned, We Don't Feel Stuck, We Don't Feel Stranded": Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore Talk with Anderson about Being In... | by Anderson Cooper 360 | Facebook." CNN, 14 Feb. 2025, Accessed 2 Apr. 2025. C-SPAN. "President Trump Signs Executive Orders." C-SPAN, 6 Mar. 2025, Accessed 19 Mar. 2025. Fox News. "Rescued Astronauts Speak out on What Can Be Learned from Mission." Fox News, 31 Mar. 2022, Accessed 2 Apr. 2025. ---. "Trump, Musk Pull Curtain Back behind Relationship, Media's Divide and Conquer Mission." YouTube, 18 Feb. 2025, Accessed 19 Mar. 2025. Kekatos, Mary, and Gina Sunseri. "Boeing's Starliner Successfully Docks at ISS after Helium Leaks, Thruster Issue." ABC News, 6 June 2024, Accessed 19 Mar. 2025. Morelle, Rebecca. "Nasa Astronauts Butch and Suni Finally Back on Earth." BBC News, 19 Mar. 2025, Accessed 19 Mar. 2025. Musk, Elon. ""The @POTUS Has Asked @SpaceX..."" X (Formerly Twitter), 28 Jan. 2025, Accessed 19 Mar. 2025. ---. ""The Astronauts Were Only Supposed to Be..."" X (Formerly Twitter), 5 Mar. 2025, Accessed 19 Mar. 2025. ---. ""You Are Fully R*******. SpaceX Could..."" X (Formerly Twitter), 20 Feb. 2025, Accessed 19 Mar. 2025. NASA. "Expedition 71 - NASA." Accessed 19 Mar. 2025. ---. "Expedition 72 - NASA." Accessed 19 Mar. 2025. ---. "NASA, Boeing Adjust Timeline for Starliner Return." 22 June 2024, Accessed 19 Mar. 2025. ---. "NASA, Boeing Discuss Ground Testing, Forward Work for Starliner Return." 25 July 2024, Accessed 19 Mar. 2025. ---. "NASA's Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test Launch – June 5, 2024 (Official NASA Broadcast)." YouTube, 5 June 2024, Accessed 3 Apr. 2025. ---. "NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 Post-Splashdown News Conference." NASA Image and Video Library, 18 Mar. 2025, Accessed 19 Mar. 2025. ---. "SpaceX Dragon with Crew-9 Aboard Docks to Station - NASA." NASA, 29 Sept. 2024, Accessed 19 Mar. 2025. NASA Video. "International Space Station Operations (June 28, 2024)." YouTube, 28 June 2024, Accessed 19 Mar. 2025. ---. "International Space Station Operations Update Media Teleconference." YouTube, 7 Aug. 2024, Accessed 19 Mar. 2025. ---. "NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 Pre-Departure News Conference – Tuesday, March 4, 2025." YouTube, 4 Mar. 2025, Accessed 19 Mar. 2025. ---. "NASA's SpaceX Crew-10 Post-Launch News Conference." YouTube, 15 Mar. 2025, Accessed 19 Mar. 2025. PBS NewsHour. "WATCH: Elon Musk Wields "Chainsaw for Bureaucracy" on Stage before Speaking at CPAC." YouTube, 20 Feb. 2025, Accessed 19 Mar. 2025. PowerfulJRE. "Joe Rogan Experience #2281 - Elon Musk." YouTube, 28 Feb. 2025, Accessed 19 Mar. 2025. SpaceX. "Dragon." SpaceX, Accessed 19 Mar. 2025. Taveau, Jessica. "NASA Decides to Bring Starliner Spacecraft back to Earth without Crew - NASA." NASA, NASA, 24 Aug. 2024, Accessed 19 Mar. 2025. ---. "Welcome Home! NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 Back on Earth after Science Mission - NASA." 18 Mar. 2025, Accessed 19 Mar. 2025. The White House. "President Trump Announces Acting Cabinet and Cabinet-Level Positions – the White House." The White House, 20 Jan. 2025, Accessed 19 Mar. 2025. Trump, Donald. ""I Have Just Asked Elon Musk..."" Truth Social, 29 Jan. 2025, Accessed 19 Mar. 2025. ---. ""I Just Spoke with the Acting Administrator..."" Truth Social, 17 Mar. 2025, Accessed 19 Mar. 2025.
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Astronauts Would Fly Boeing Starliner Again After Nine-Month Ordeal In Orbit
After spending nine months stuck on the International Space Station, the last thing I would consider doing is flying the same spacecraft that left me stranded there, but I'm not an astronaut. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams stated that they would be happy to fly the Boeing Starliner again during a post-flight press conference on Monday. It's not an empty compliment, as NASA is open to scheduling another Starliner flight before the end of the year. Wilmore and Williams returned to Earth last month on NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 mission. The duo launched to the ISS on Starliner in July last year for an 8-day test flight. Once helium leaks and thruster issues emerged en route to the station, the mission stretched for months as engineers attempted to resolve the problems. The pair didn't blame anyone for how the ordeal played out but praised the positive aspects of Starliner. Notably, the spacecraft shares the traditional design philosophy of Boeing's planes, like how the pilots should ultimately be in control. Starliner featured a manual override to the spacecraft's autonomous flight capabilities. According to Space Police Online, Wilmore said: "I jokingly said a couple of times before we launched that I can literally do a barrel roll over the top of the space station. ... If we can figure out a couple of very important primary issues with the thrusters and the helium system, Starliner is ready to go." Read more: John Oliver Explains How All Of Boeing's Problems Can Be Traced Back To Stock Buybacks And Incompetent Leadership Wilmore and Williams are set to meet with Boeing leadership on Wednesday to discuss what happened during the test flight. Since Starliner's uncrewed return last September, NASA confirmed that 70% of the flight observations and in-flight anomalies have been closed. Despite the rapid pace in fixing issues, the problems with the thrust still persist. NASA aims to fly a certification flight later this year or in early 2026. The space agency wants to have a redundancy in capabilities and not be utterly dependent on the SpaceX Crew Dragon. Surprisingly, Boeing remains committed to fixing Starliner. NASA's Commercial Crew Program awarded Boeing a fixed-cost contract. If the aerospace giant exceeded the set budget, then it would have to cover the additional costs. The Starliner program was already over budget by $2 billion. Boeing considered ditching the final frontier altogether late last year by selling off its space division, but management decided to double down on Starliner. Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox... Read the original article on Jalopnik.
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA astronauts say they'd fly the Boeing craft again: ‘I'd get on in a heartbeat'
Their craft's mechanical issues led to a stay in space that was 35 times longer than originally scheduled, an eight-day mission that ultimately clocked in at 286 days. Yet both of NASA's unlikely celebrity astronauts say they'd go again—on the same Boeing Starliner that failed them once. 'We're going to rectify all the issues that we encountered. We're going to make it work,' astronaut Butch Wilmore said on Monday at a news briefing held at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. 'Boeing's completely committed. NASA is completely committed. And with that, I'd get on in a heartbeat.' During a wide-ranging news conference, Wilmore and Sunita 'Suni' Williams disclosed that they will meet with Boeing officials on Wednesday to review their issue-plagued Starliner flight. But Williams echoed Wilmore's sentiment about being willing to go up in the craft again. 'The spacecraft is really capable,' Williams said. 'There were a couple of things that need to be fixed, like Butch mentioned, and folks are actively working on that. But it is a great spacecraft, and it has a lot of capability that other spacecrafts don't have.' The Wednesday meeting is the latest and perhaps most important step in determining why the Starliner experienced thruster failures and helium leaks last June on its maiden voyage to the International Space Station. Those issues, some of which had been observed during previous launch attempts, prompted NASA officials to keep the astronauts at the ISS and, after weeks of delay, to return Starliner to Earth without crew members aboard. Wilmore and Williams instead splashed down off the Florida panhandle in a SpaceX craft on March 18, more than nine months past their initial return date, after putting in extended crew time at the ISS. They were joined on the flight home by NASA astronaut Nick Hague, who commanded the SpaceX Crew-9 mission, and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. Wilmore, who commanded Starliner's test flight, attempted to absorb blame for its failures, saying, 'I'll start with me' and noting that he did not ask certain questions 'that I did not, at the time, know I needed to.' The primary issues with the craft, though, land squarely with Boeing, its manufacturer, and with NASA, which bears the final responsibility for every aspect of the U.S. space program. Williams and Wilmore's experience cast an unusual spotlight on the astronauts, who became largely known as Butch and Suni by Americans avidly following their story. Their saga became the subject of tense conversations between NASA and Boeing executives about what to do, and President Donald Trump later blamed the Biden administration for leaving the astronauts 'abandoned' at the ISS. In a social media post, Trump also implied that SpaceX founder Elon Musk would personally travel to space to retrieve Wilmore and Williams. (He didn't.) 'The stuck, 'marooned' narrative–we heard about that,' Wilmore said. 'We had a plan, right? The plan went way off, but because we're in human space flight, we prepare for any number of contingencies. This is a curvy road—you never know where it's going to go.' Hague added that at the International Space Station (ISS), 'You don't feel the politics. You don't feel any of that. It's focused strictly on mission.' He said that with the additions of Wilmore and of Williams, who became commander of the ISS in September, 'It took everything I had every day to keep up with them…The reality is they are highly skilled, very technically competent.' The ISS is the site of hundreds of experiments and exercises, many of them tied to longer-term goals of pushing farther out into space and, potentially, remaining there. Suni Williams told Fortune in the months before her Starliner launch that the next frontiers are a sustained presence on the Moon and, in time, on Mars. She touched on that theme again Monday in answering a reporter's question about the attention NASA has received—flattering and otherwise—in the time since she and Williams departed last summer. 'It's an honor that people are paying attention,' Williams said. 'Good news, bad news—it's just news, and it's good for space exploration, and that's what we're all about. Our mission [of] building and working on the International Space Station was just awesome, and we all had the opportunity to do that. 'But we also have bigger goals of exploring our solar system, going back to the Moon, going on to Mars, and to get people understanding that it is hard—it is difficult—and what we do up there is really awesome. And I think at least that we had a little bit of that [understanding] with the interest in this mission. If we can perpetuate that and tell people a little bit more and have the opportunity, the forum to do that, I'm very thankful for that.' Both Williams and Wilmore credited NASA's exercise and nutrition experts for keeping their bodies in shape during their space stay, with Williams noting that she peeled off a three-mile run recently, less than two weeks after returning to Earth. Too, the astronauts acknowledged the hardship placed on their families by the extended mission. One of Wilmore's daughters is a high-school senior; he missed most of her school year. And both veterans said they remain intrigued by the Starliner's capabilities, a strong suggestion that NASA, as it has publicly maintained, will continue along its program of using two private companies—Boeing and SpaceX—compete for the contracts to carry astronauts into space. Williams' and Wilmore's comments Monday make it even more imperative for Boeing and NASA to answer the continued questions around Starliner's readiness. Wilmore said that Starliner has 'the most capability' of any available craft, partly because of its easy switch from manual to automatic operation. 'And then we have a backup mode where we can go directly from controllers to the reaction control system jets and maneuver the spacecraft,' he added. 'There's no spacecraft that has all of this capability. I mean, I jokingly said a couple of times before we launched that I could literally do a barrel row over the top of the Space Station…If we can figure out a couple of very important primary issues with the thrusters and the helium system, Starliner is ready to go.' This story was originally featured on
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Everyone has 'responsibility' for Starliner test flight failures, NASA astronaut says
One of the astronauts who returned to Earth after an unexpected nine months in space said on Monday that everyone holds "responsibility" for what may have gone wrong with Boeing's Starliner test flight. Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams performed the first astronaut-crewed flight of Starliner to the International Space Station (ISS) in June 2024. However, what was supposed to be a mission lasting about one week turned into a nine-month stay aboard the ISS due to several issues with Starliner before they returned home in mid-March 2024. MORE: Timeline of Boeing's Starliner mission that left NASA astronauts aboard ISS for 9 months In response to a question during a press briefing at the Johnson Space Center in Houston on Monday about who is to "blame" for what went wrong, Wilmore said everyone holds some "responsibility." "I'll start with me," Wilmore said. "There were questions that I, as a commander of the spacecraft, that I should have asked, and I did not. At the time, I didn't know I needed to. And maybe you could call that hindsight. But I'll start and point the finger, and I'll blame me. I could've asked some questions, and the answers to those questions could have turned the tide." "'Blame' ... I don't like that term, but certainly there's responsibility throughout all the programs, and certainly you can start with me," he continued. "Responsibility with Boeing, yes. Responsibility with NASA, yes, all the way up and down the chain. We all are responsible. We all own this." Issues with the spacecraft prompted NASA and Boeing to send Starliner back to Earth uncrewed and keep Wilmore and Williams onboard the ISS until early 2025, when they would return home on a SpaceX Crew-9 Dragon spacecraft once Crew-10 arrived at the ISS. The SpaceX Crew-9 undocked in the early hours of Tuesday, March 18, and deorbited in the afternoon, before returning to Earth Tuesday evening. Williams said they were "surprised" by the public interest in their mission. "It's interesting. We go and launch, we knew it was a little bit unique, obviously, first time flying on a new spacecraft," she said. "But, you know, then life goes on up there and … we pivoted, and we were International Space Station crew members, and we're doing what all of our other friends and in the astronaut, office do is go and work and train and do science." "And so you're not really aware of what else is going on down here. But, I think we were just really focused on what we were doing and trying to be part of the team and making sure we pulled our weight for the team," Williams said. "So no, I don't think we were aware to the degree -- honored and humbled by the fact of when we came home like, 'Wow, there's, there are a lot of people who are interested.'" The pair were also asked about how they felt about being pulled into the middle of a political battle. During a Fox News interview with Sean Hannity in February, President Donald Trump falsely claimed that the astronauts has been abandoned in space by then-president Joe Biden. "They didn't have the go-ahead with Biden," Trump said. "He was going to leave them in space. I think he was going to leave them in space. … He didn't want the publicity. Can you believe it?" During the Hannity interview, Musk said SpaceX was "accelerating" the return of Wilmore and Williams at Trump's request, adding that "they were left up there for political reasons, which is not good." These comments were made despite confirmation from NASA in August 2024 that Wilmore and Williams would return on the SpaceX Crew 9 spacecraft in early 2025. NASA astronaut Nick Hague, who returned with Wilmore and Williams on Crew-9 said the politics "don't make it up" to the ISS, but that there was always a plan to bring the astronauts home. "We were planning from day one to return toward the end of end of February," he said. "That all predicated on the fact that we would have a replacement crew show up, and we'd have adequate hand over that's important to maintain the mission of the International Space Station, to continue pushing research and exploration, and that was never in question the entire time." Wilmore said although the Starliner mission did not go as originally planned, there were "contingencies" In place. "We said this before; we had a plan, right? The plan went way off what we had planned," he said. "But because we're in human spaceflight, we prepare for any number of contingencies, because this is a curvy road. You never know where it's going to go, we prepare for this." Everyone has 'responsibility' for Starliner test flight failures, NASA astronaut says originally appeared on
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Boeing Starliner commander shares blame for spacecraft failure, but would fly on it again
NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore put some of the blame on himself when asked who was responsible for Boeing Starliner's failure on last year's Crew Flight Test. He and crewmate Suni Williams flew up to the International Space Station last June on what was supposed to be as short as an eight-day stay. The spacecraft, though, suffered from failed thrusters and helium leaks that ultimately led to NASA's decision to send the spacecraft home without crew. The pair then remained on the station more than nine months flying home instead on the SpaceX Crew-9 mission earlier this month. 'There were questions that I as the commander of the spacecraft, that I should have asked, and I did not at the time,' Wilmore said during a Monday press conference. 'I didn't know I needed to. And maybe you could call that hindsight, but I'll start and point the finger, and I'll blame me.' He said the answers to some of those questions could have delayed the launch and avoided what turned into a national spotlight, but he said Boeing and NASA also share the blame. 'We all are responsible. We all own this,' he said. 'You cannot do this business without trust. You have to have ultimate trust, and for someone to step forward and these different organizations say, 'Hey, I'm culpable for part of that issue.' — that goes a long way to maintaining trust.' Wilmore, though, said he would fly on Starliner again. 'Yes, because we're going to rectify all the issues that we encountered. We're going to fix it, we're going to make it work,' he said. 'Boeing's completely committed. NASA is completely committed. And with that, I'd get on in a heartbeat. Williams concurred. 'The spacecraft is really capable. There were a couple things that need to be fixed, like Butch mentioned, and folks are actively working on that, but it is a great spacecraft, and it has a lot of capability that other spacecraft don't have,' she said. Wilmore said he and Williams were scheduled to meet with Boeing leadership this week to discuss how to move forward. 'There's a great deal of work being done, but we have insight that not many other people have,' Wilmore said. 'We worked this program for six years before we launched. We talked to everyone up and down to the chain of command, and we have insight that other people don't have, and we want to share that as much as possible.' Wilmore still gushes about Starliner's ability compared to the Soyuz and SpaceX Crew Dragon. 'Starliner has the most capability when you think about its ability to maneuver automatically,' he said. 'I mean, I jokingly said a couple of times before we launched that I could literally do a barrel roll over the top of the space station. I would never do that, but you can.' He expects Boeing and NASA to enable the fixes, do integrated tests and get the spacecraft qualified. 'It is very, very capable. If we can figure out a couple of very important primary issues with the thrusters and the helium system, Starliner is ready to go,' he said. 'That is not going to be happen overnight, but it has to take place.' The duo were joined by NASA astronaut and Crew-9 commander Nick Hague, with whom they flew home earlier this month. Hague weighed in on the challenge astronauts face when politics overshadow the mission, as it did during claims by President Trump and Elon Musk that the Starliner astronauts were left behind on the station for political reasons by the Biden Administration. 'Politics … they don't make it up there when we're trying to make operational decisions,' Hague said. 'So as the commander of Crew-9, responsible for the safety of this crew and getting them back safely, I can tell you that the entire time up there, I launched with that singular objective.'
