posted 02-06-2025 12:02 PM               

SpaceX and NASA are still working to resolve the C213 Dragon issue, which may be related to batteries on the spacecraft. NASA now believes the vehicle will not be ready for its debut launch until late April. Therefore, according to sources at the agency, NASA has decided to swap vehicles for Crew-10. The space agency has asked SpaceX to bring forward the C210 vehicle, which returned to Earth last March after completing the Crew-7 mission.

Known as Endurance, the spacecraft was next due to fly the private Axiom-4 mission to the space station later this spring. Sources said SpaceX is now working toward a no-earlier-than March 12 launch date for Crew-10 on Endurance. If this flight occurs on — and the date is not certain, as it depends on other missions on SpaceX's Falcon 9 manifest — the Crew-9 astronauts, including Wilmore and Williams, could fly home on March 19.

posted 02-20-2025 02:16 PM               

Elon, I have long admired you and what you have accomplished, especially at SpaceX and Tesla.

You know as well as I do, that Butch and Suni are returning with Crew-9, as has been the plan since last September. Even now, you are not sending up a rescue ship to bring them home. They are returning on the Dragon capsule that has been on ISS since last September.

posted 02-20-2025 04:16 PM               

NASA is focused on safely executing our crew rotation missions and work aboard the International Space Station for the benefit of humanity and future long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars.

In January, President Trump announced he asked Elon Musk's SpaceX to bring NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams home from the space station as soon as possible. NASA and SpaceX expeditiously reviewed its joint crew rotation operations and changed the Dragon spacecraft for the launch of the agency's Crew-10 mission. This decision safely accelerates the target launch of Crew-10 and the return of Crew-9, pending mission readiness and completion of the agency’s upcoming certification of flight readiness process.

posted 03-05-2025 04:17 PM               

Unfortunately, the answers themselves did not provide too much clarity. On one hand, Wilmore says "politics is not playing into this at all" in reference to his extended stay in space. On the other hand, he says he believes Musk, after the founder of SpaceX said he offered to bring NASA astronauts back in 2024, but that this option was rebuffed by the White House for political reasons.

Q. Did politics influence NASA's decision for you to stay longer in space?

Wilmore: From my standpoint, politics is not playing into this at all. From our standpoint, I think that they would agree, we came up prepared to stay long, even though we plan to stay short. That's what we do in human spaceflight. That's what your nation's human space flight program is all about, planning for unknown, unexpected contingencies. And we did that, and that's why we flowed right into Crew 9, into Expedition 72 as we did. And it was somewhat of a seamless transition, because we had planned ahead for it, and we were prepared.

Q. Elon Musk said he made an offer to bring Butch and Suni home last year, but it was denied by the White House. Is this true?

Wilmore: I can only say that Mr. Musk, what he says, is absolutely factual. We have no information on that, though, whatsoever; what was offered, what was not offered; who it was offered to, how that process 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 really can give you the answer that maybe that you would be hoping for.

posted 03-06-2025 05:41 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by issman1:
...both could have splashed down with Crew-8 last October. Or two members of Crew-8 could even have remained on the station...

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As for leaving Crew-8 members on ISS, why? Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are very capable astronauts with past ISS experience who were experiencing no problems on orbit. There is no logical reason why returning them earlier would take preference over returning Crew-8 on time.

posted 03-06-2025 01:13 PM               

I would have thought an uncomfortable landing at most would be acceptable.

Also, lots of tumbleweed drifting past as Boeing fixes its minor problems. I have believed all along and stated previously that Boeing messed up from the get go. Nothing has happened to prove otherwise.

posted 03-06-2025 01:24 PM               

As for Boeing, let's not forget, Starliner landed safely. Were it not for an abundance of caution on NASA's part, Williams and Wilmore would be home now, having touched down on Calypso.

posted 03-06-2025 04:32 PM               

But surely it's not acceptable for Boeing to go unchallenged on the way they have operated. It's 8 months since that flight , so if it was so successful why are they not sending it back up to collect the original crew. And how many years late now?

I would say it's not very capable as it hasn't managed one complete mission. Some of the failure modes appear to be in basic systems that were only replicating what was achieved 50 years ago.

posted 03-06-2025 05:01 PM               

Why hasn't Boeing sent Starliner back up to the space station? Because NASA decides what vehicles fly there, not the companies. Boeing wanted Williams and Wilmore to return to Earth on Starliner, which in hindsight we know would have been fine, but NASA overruled Boeing and out of an abundance of caution, here we are with Crew-9.