For nine months orbiting ‘trapped’ astronauts planned home | International Space Station
After a nine -month -old accommodation at the International Space Station, US astronauts Butch Wilmore and Artificial Williams’ Space Odyssey seems to finally end.
Although a NASA-SPACEX mission has been postponed on Wednesday, the American space agency hopes now that the launch will take place on Friday, so the couple will be able to return to Earth next week.
Wilmore and Williams’ mission was initially extended to months because of the security concerns about Boeing Starliner, who had to bring them home for the last eight days. Instead, the couple was increasingly integrated with US President Donald Trump into a politically accused mission and claimed that the astronauts were many times ”abandoned in space”. Experts, the couple does not want the Unexpected residences in ISS will be wrong to assume that it would be wrong, he says.
Former director of the European Space Agency (ESA), Jan Wörner said: “Astronauts can never be trapped as long as there is a hope of returning. If they want to fly and they want to fly and if there is an opportunity, ask more. “
Wörner said that astronauts were patiently chosen and trained in patience, flexibility and flexibility. “Astronauts do not see their work as a personal adventure,” he added. “This is something for humanity.”
When it was understood that they would not return to the expected Starliner capsule, Wilmore and Williams were assimilated to the Iss team and Williams became the station commander in September. Two astronauts stopped from a routine cycle flight and specially installed seats were replaced for Wilmore and Williams. The SpaceX Dragon capsule, where the couple will return, has been placed at the station since September.
Former NASA assistant manager Lori Garver said, “Kiphe” is difficult to embrace NASA, because they can always return, “he said. “They can go back in an emergency.”
The astronauts themselves tried to detect their long -term stay. “This is the narrative of the first day: stranded, abandoned, stuck – and I understand. We both understand, “Wilmore He told CNN last month. “But still, the human space flight program is not what our program. We don’t feel abandoned, we don’t feel stuck, we don’t feel stranded. “
Garver said: orum When they say that they do not feel stranded astronauts, I take their words. The happiest of astronauts in space. Of course, they miss their families and pets. I always wondered how they adapted like that. “
Still Trump He told the astronauts last week: “We love you and we come to get you and you shouldn’t have been there for a long time.”
The episode emphasized NASA’s confidence in SpaceX and damages Boeing’s ambitions in the space industry. Garver said, “The fact that there is no second provider to bring them home,” he said. “Two Americans [providers] It is good for commercial space stations and competitive pricing is always better than a monopoly. “
However, he and others said that delays and technical problems in public service programs are frequent.
“The area is hard,” he said. “The launch and rendezvous are the most difficult parts of this in orbit, especially for crew tasks. Regardless of whether there is a public or a private operator, it requires an investigation because there is a problem with hardware and that there are lives in question. “
The last delay described on Wednesday was caused by a problem with a hydraulic system used to control one of the two handcuffs held on the upper part of the rocket because the last delay was sitting vertically on the floor pad before launch.
NASA spokesman Derrol Nail, “This is a ground problem,” he said. Everything was fine with rocket and spacecraft. “
The mission is planned for an earlier than Friday evening due to weather conditions and solving technical problems.
Dragon capsule, two NASA astronauts, Nichole Ayers and Mother McClain, Japanese astronaut takuya Onishi and Roscosmos Kozmonaut Kirill Peskov will be transported in orbit. After entering the Space Station, the new crew will spend a few days to get used to the ISS’s life. Wilmore, Williams and the rest of the current crew will return to Earth a few days later.
