Starliner Commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore said on Tuesday that he did not think that politics had played a role in the prolonged mission of the crew, but he had not directly addressed the previous comments of President Trump and Elon Musk that the crew had been “Abandoned” in space by the Biden administration.
“Obviously, we have heard some of these different things that have been said,” said Wilmore during An orbital press conference. “I can tell you at the start, we all have the greatest respect for Mr. Musk and, obviously, respect and admiration for our President of the United States, Donald Trump.”
“The words they have said, politics, I mean, that is part of life. We understand that. And there is an important reason why we have a political system and the political system we have, and we are 100%behind.”
Nasa
Wilmore and Starliner pilot Sunita Williams Said in the previous comments that they did not feel blocked or abandoned. But again Tuesday, the crew asked several questions about what some consider the intrusion of politics into their mission.
“From my point of view, politics does not play at all,” said Wilmore. “We have come prepared to stay for a long time, even if we plan to stay short. This is what we do in human space flight. This is what the human space flight program of your nation is everything, by planning unknown and unexpected contingencies. And we did.”
Wilmore and Williams, both former military test pilots, Launched at the International Space Station On June 5 of last year, aboard a ferry ship from Boeing Starliner Crew for a mission that should last about eight days.
The Starliner accosted the outpost the day after the launch, but the ship encountered several problems with its propulsion system when approaching the laboratory.
In mid-August, after a detail engineering analysisBoeing Managers argued that the problems were well understood and could be managed safely when the crew on Earth returns. But Nasa The managers disagreed and finally decided to Bring the Starliner back to earth By remote control, without its crew in early September.
To minimize the disruption of the resort’s crew rotation calendar and research, NASA has chosen to knock two astronauts from the next Dragon Spacex flight and launch this mission, known as Crew 9, end of September With only two crew members on board. This left two empty seats for Wilmore and Williams.
The mission of the crew 9 was initially to end this month, but the flight was extended at the end of March Due to the preparation problems of a new crew dragon at the launch, sources said. NASA later decided to use another crew dragon, opening the way to crew 9 to deactivate and head towards the earth towards Earth on March 19.
Nasa
On January 28, President Trump blamed administration biden For the extended stay of the Starliner team in space, saying that he had asked the founder of SpaceX, Elon Musk, “to go” the two “courageous astronauts who were practically abandoned in space by the Biden administration”.
“They have been waiting for several months at @space station. Elon will soon be on the way. I hope everything will be safe. Good luck Elon !!!”, wrote Mr. Trump on Truth Social.
A few hours before the president’s position, Musk said about his social media platform X That Mr. Trump had asked SpaceX to return to the astronauts of the Starliners as soon as possible, adding: “We will do so. Terrible that the Biden administration left them so long.”
Musk later said that he had proposed to bring Wilmore and Williams back to earth earlier, but he said that his offer had been refused because “they did not want a positive press for someone who supported Trump. That’s it. End of history”.
Wilmore described the CEO of SpaceX as “absolutely factual”. But he added that the crew had no knowledge of such an offer.
“We have no information on this subject, however … what was proposed, which was not offered, to whom it was offered, how these processes went,” Wilmore told a journalist on Tuesday. “This is information that we just don’t have.”
“So I believe it. I don’t know all these details, and I don’t think we can really give you the answer you may have.”
NASA plans to operate the ISS until 2030. In another recent article on X, Musk said that the station should be brought back earlier: “It’s time to start the preparations to deorb the @Space_Station. It has served its objective. There is very little incremental utility.
When asked by the clarification of technological and scientific news, Musk replied on x By saying “the decision depends on the president, but my recommendation is as soon as possible. I recommend in 2 years.”
Williams said he disagreed.
“This place is running, it’s really incredible,” she said about the station. “So I would say that we are actually at our peak right now. We have all the power, all the facilities and operating. I therefore think that it is probably not the right time to call it.”
Since the ISS is managed by NASA and several partner countries, the Starliner pilot said they should make the most of it from international taxpayers and partners and “have our obligations and make this world class science which this laboratory is capable”.
If everything is going well, the commander of the crew 10 Anne McClain, the pilot Nichole Ayers, the Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and the cosmonaut Kirill Peskov will unleash and head for the space station on March 12.
Once on board, the commander of the 9 crew Nick Hague, the cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov, Wilmore and Williams will help their replacements before undressing and returning to Earth to Earth around March 19.