Spacex Rocket starts while Butch and Suni prepare a return

SpaceX has launched a rocket carrying a new crew to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of a plan for bringing astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams at home.

The couple had to be at the ISS for only eight days, but due to the technical problems with the experimental spacecraft they appeared in, they have been there for more than nine months.

Astronauts must start their journey back on the ground two days after the new crew arrives. Steve Stitch, NASA’s commercial crew manager, said he was delighted with perspective.

“Butch and Suni have done a great job and we are excited to return them,” he said.

Astronauts, along with their roommates, Nasa’s Nasa Hague and Roskosmos Alexander Gorbunov, will be released by four astronauts, from Russia, Japan and two from the United States.

There will be a two -day show, after which the old crew should start your trip back to the ground. But there may be a slightly further delay, as they are waiting for Earth conditions to be correct for safely re-entering the return capsule, according to Dana Wigel, the ISS program manager.

“Time should always cooperate, so we will take the time for it if it is not favorable,” she told reporters.

D -Ja Weigel explained that astronauts had started preparing for the show last week.

“Butch called a ceremonial bell while Suni handed a command to Alexei Ovchinin,” she said.

Astronauts constantly said they were happy to be on board the space station, with Suni Williams describing it as its “happy place”. But Dr. Simeon Barber of Open University told BBC News that there would probably be personal expenses.

“When you are sent on a work trip that should last a week, you do not expect it to take the best part of a year,” he said.

“This prolonged stay in space will have broken family life. Things will happen at home that will miss, so there will be a period of cataclysm.”

Butch and Suni arrived at the ISS in early June 2024 to test an experimental spacecraft called Starliner, which was built by the Boeing aerospace company, a rival of SpaceX.

The mission has been delayed by several years due to technical problems in the development of the spacecraft and has had problems during the launch and the docking of the ISS. This included problems with some of the Starliner pushers that would be required to slow the spacecraft to re -enter the earth’s atmosphere and leakage of helium gas in the drive system.

NASA decided that it would not even be necessary to have a small risk of returning butch and Suns to Starliner when they were able to return them to the SpaceX Dragon capsule. NASA decided that the best option was to do so during a planned crew rotation, although it would mean keeping the space station astronauts for several months.

Boeing constantly claims that it would be safe to return Starliner’s Butch and Suns and was unhappy with the decision to use a rival capsule instead of what would be “disturbing” for boeing, according to Dr. Barber.

“It’s not a good look for Boeing to see the astronauts who have taken space return to a competitor’s craft.”

Both President Trump and Spacex CEO Elon Musk said Butch and Suni could be harvested earlier, most recently in Joint interview with Fox News in FebruaryS

President Trump states: “They stayed in space.”

When the interviewer, Sean Haniti, he developed, saying, “They had to be there for eight days. They are almost 300, “replies G -n Trump in one word:” Biden “. Musk follows saying: “They were left there for political reasons.”

The claim is refused by NASA Steve Stitch.

“We looked at a wide range of options and worked hand in hand with SpaceX to look at what was the best thing in general, and when we laid all this, the best option was to have the one we go down,” he said.

This decision was supported by Dr. Libby Jackson, who is the head of space at the Museum of Science in London and works in Europe to control the ISS control.

“The well -being of Butch and Suni would always be at the fore in the mind of everyone, since decisions are made on how best to deal with the circumstances that were presented,” she said.

“NASA made these decisions on the basis of good technical reasons for programming reasons and found the right decision that kept Butch and Suns safe.

“I’m really glad to see them return to the ground, safe and healthy, along with their other teammates.”