Consequently, the mission of the crew 9 was launched in September with only two astronauts. Wilmore and Williams joined this crew for a full increase of six months on the space station.
Stich said that NASA had made this decision according to flight schedules at the space station and the needs of the laboratory in orbit. It also allowed time to send SpaceX spatial combinations for the pair of astronauts and produce seat liners that would land in water, under parachutes, safely.
“When we have exhibited all of this, the best option was really the one we are taking now,” said Stich. “And we therefore did Crew 9, piloting the two empty seats, piloting a butch costume up, and we also ensuring that the seats were correct for Butch’s anthropometry, and Suni, to return them safely.”
So yes, SpaceX worked with NASA to present options, including the possibility of a return last fall. However, these discussions took place in the program levels and their managers: Stich for the sales team and Dana Weigel for the international space station.
“Dana and I worked to make a decision that worked for the program and the space crew space,” said Stich. “And then, Ken (Bowersox), we all had the process of examining the flight preparation with you, and the NASA administrator also listened to. We therefore recommended to the agency and it was on the process that we generally use.”
Bowersox confirmed that the decision had been taken at the programmatic level.
“This is usually the way our decisions work,” said Bowersox. “The programs work with what makes them the most meaning, programming, technically.
During the teleconference, a Vice-President of SpaceX, Bill Gerstenmaier, was directly invited to what Musc’s offer was referred to when he mentioned the Biden administration. He did not provide a substantial response.
Musk says he made an offer directly to senior officials from the Biden administration. We have no way of verifying this, but it seems clear that the Biden administration has never communicated such a offer to lower level officials within NASA, who made their decision for technical rather than political reasons.
“I think you know that we are working for NASA, and we worked with NASA in cooperation to do everything we think is the right thing,” replied the manager of SpaceX, Gerstenmaier. “You know, we were ready to support in any case that they thought they were the right way to support. They proposed the option you heard described today, and we support this option.”
Has Trump told NASA to accelerate the return of Butch and Suni?
At the end of last year, the mission of the crew 9 was to return in mid-February. However, there was a battery problem with a new dragon spacecraft that was going to be used to drive the 10 orbit crew. Therefore, NASA announced On December 17, the return of the crew was delayed in late March or early April.
Then, on February 11, NASA announced that the launch of the crew 10 was presented on March 12. It was a few weeks earlier than expected, and it was possible because NASA and SpaceX decided to exchange dragon capsules, using a previously controlled vehicle – wrote Dragon. Endurance—For Crew 10.
So was this change to accelerate the return of Wilmore and Williams was politically led?
The decision to exchange towards Endurance was manufactured at the end of January, said Stich, which made it possible to advance the launch date. When asked if political pressure was a reason, Stich said no. “He was really motivated by many other factors, and we examined it before some of these statements were made by the president and Mr. Musk,” he said.
Bowersox added that it was correct, but also said that NASA appreciated the president’s interest in the space program.
“I can verify that Steve talked about how we could need to juggle flights and change capsules a good month before discussion outside NASA, but the president’s interest has certainly added energy to conversation,” Bowersox said.
This story originally appeared on Ars Technica.
