Повернення астронавтки Суніти Вільямс / NASA
Two NASA astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who were crew members of the spacecraft Boeing Starliner and had to spend 9 months on the International Space Station instead of the planned 8 days, finally returned to Earth.
The astronauts landed on the water in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule near the coast of Florida. In addition to Wilmore and Williams, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and russian Alexander Gorbunov also returned to Earth from the ISS.
The astronauts were warmly welcomed by representatives of the Control Center by NASA flights. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were overjoyed as their long stay in space came to an end.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams fly to the ISS as part of the spacecraft’s first test flight Boeing Starliner, launched from Cape Canaveral on June 5, 2024 after a series of technical delays. However, after Starliner entered orbit, a number of problems arose, including with five helium leaks and five control system motor failures.The SpaceX Dragon capsule with the crew undocked from the Harmony module on the ISS and headed for Earth for the next 17 hours.
During their stay on the ISS, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were engaged in maintenance and participated in a number of scientific projects. In general, the NASA astronauts’ stay aboard the International Space Station was relatively uneventful, except for an incident when a decommissioned Russian satellite collapsed in orbit and the debris headed toward the ISS. This forced all the astronauts on the station at the time to evacuate, to hide inside their space capsules.
It is currently unknown whether there are any prospects for the ship in the future Boeing Starliner. Engineers NASA tested the ship’s engine housings in a vacuum chamber in White Sands, New Mexico, for possible malfunctions.
It is unlikely that the Starliner will make a new flight in 2025. However Boeing insists that it is still confident in its ship and will receive a new airworthiness certificate for the new mission.
Source: Live Science