Elon Musk’s SpaceX was chosen by NASA today to recover Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore from space next year. Eighty days ago, the two astronauts arrived at the International Space Station aboard Boeing’s Starliner for an 8-day mission. The Boeing capsule had serious mechanical problems, so they had to extend their stay.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX was chosen by NASA today to recover Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore from space
The astronauts are slated to return in February of the following year, having spent a total of eight months in orbit on the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft which is scheduled to fly next month as part of a regular astronaut rotation trip.
Bill Nelson, the director of NASA, stated that Starliner’s propulsion system is too dangerous to return its first crew home.
The space agency’s selection of Boeing’s primary space competitor was a new blow to the Starliner test program. Boeing was hoping that the mission would bring closure to the troubled program, which has been hampered by development issues for years and has seen over $1.6 billion in excess spending since 2016.
Nelson claimed to have spoken with Kelly Ortberg, the new CEO of Boeing, about the agency’s choice.
Boeing has been rushing to find out what caused its engine problems and helium leaks since Starliner arrived at the International Space Station in June. To attempt and persuade NASA officials that Starliner is safe to carry the crew back home, the business conducted experiments and simulations on Earth in order to gather data.
However, the testing’s outcomes posed further challenging engineering problems and ultimately did not satisfy NASA officials’ worries about Starliner’s capacity to complete the test mission’s most difficult and complex task: a crewed return flight.
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