Yesterday, astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Suni Williams touched down in the Gulf of Mexico, after spending more than nine months on the International Space Station, far longer than their original intended stay of only eight days on the Station.
Butch and Suni were originally part of a test flight for Boeing’s Starliner capsule, designed as a competitor to the Crew Dragon made by SpaceX. The test flight was supposed to involve being flown up to the ISS, staying there for eight days, and returning shortly afterwards, hopefully with no errors. Sadly, however, while Starliner was docking with the ISS defects were found in the craft’s maneuvering thrusters, which it needs to dock safely and be able to return to Earth without killing the astronauts.
After this discovery, NASA decided to keep them on the ISS, to fill in for two of the crew members on the next crewed mission to the station, Crew-9, and having Butch and Suni work as part of Crew-9, until their 6-month posting was up, when they would be replaced by Crew-10.
Contrary to what many may claim, the loudest of which being Elon Musk, the astronauts were not left on the ISS for ‘political reasons,’ but instead to help keep the ISS’ crew rotation, as has been stated by several NASA administrators and other staff.
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