NASA astronauts return from long Space Station stay prompted by Boeing problems

Sonita “Sony” Williams and Paribi “Poach” Wilmor returned to Earth after a nine-month stay at the International Space Station (ISS)-a trip that lasted much longer than the planned in the first place thanks to leaks and increasing problems in the Boeing Starlener spacecraft that they used to reach.

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.

William and Wilmmore were initially launched to ISS in June 2024 as part of a mission that was decisive to Boeing’s attempt to compete with Spacex. The Aviation Beheemoth team won a contract next to Spacex in 2014 to send astronauts to NASA’s International Space Station with a look at them eventually further to the solar system.

Spacex made its first crew trip with the Dragon Crew Dragon spacecraft in 2020 – during the early days of the Covid epidemic. Meanwhile, the Boeing’s Starliner project was withdrawn through cost and delay.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 astronauts finally arrived, NASA and Boeing spent a few weeks in testing before they decided to return Starlener without them.

NASA soon started working with Spacex on a plan to restore Willams and Wilmore. After each other, they decided to wait until early 2025 to bring the duo home so that ISS timing is not.

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.

Both of NASA and the official under the leadership of Biden said that the space agency was not aware of any show. CNN reported on Tuesday that senior White House officials also claim that they were not aware of any offer.

Watch the team returns to the ground: