Butch Wilmore says Elon Musk is “absolutely factual” on Dragon’s delayed return
by Eric Berger from Ars Technica - All content on (#6VP8A)
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.