Three NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut are due to return home on a Crew Dragon spacecraft in a couple of weeks. For two of the crew members, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, it has been a long, strange trip.
To recap:
Wilmore and Williams launch on the first crewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on June 5, 2024
During Starliner’s flight to the International Space Station, the vehicle has thruster issues and helium leaks
In August, NASA announces Starliner will return to Earth uncrewed due to unresolved technical issues
Crew 9 mission launches with just two astronauts, NASA’s Nick Hague and Russia’s Aleksandr Gorbunov, in late September
Wilmore and Williams join Crew 9, extending their flight from eight days to more than eight months
After SpaceX experiences a development issue with a Crew Dragon, Crew 9’s return is delayed a month more, to March
In February 2025, Elon Musk and Donald Trump politicize Wilmore and Williams’ long-duration stay
When a European astronaut calls Musk out for his “lie” about this, Musk replies, “You are fully retarded.”
Musk recommends space station be deorbited as soon as 2027, three years ahead of schedule.
On Tuesday Wilmore, Williams, and Hague participated from orbit in a news conference with reporters. What is notable about the news conference is that it marks the first time any NASA official—a handful of previously scheduled media availabilities have been canceled—has been on the record with media since the politicization of Crew 9’s return and Musk’s call to deorbit the space station early.
