NASA's stranded astronauts Fiasco has taken another turn.
The mission with which Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore should take off the Space Leave Space last night, but was canceled due to technical problems with the rocket.
Now Elon Musk's SpaceX is forced to leave the next launch window, because Strong Wind threatens Florida on Thursday.
If everything goes according to plan, the next launch starts on Friday at 7:03 pm and the astronauts return home on March 19.
Williams and Wilmore were planned for an eight -day stay at the International Space Station (ISS) when they arrived in June.
The Boeing capsule that brought them to space, however, functioned and they have been stuck there for more than nine months.
The delays come as Elon Musk said he offered to bring the few months ago home.
He claimed that the Biden administration shot it down because the Donald Trump would have put it out well in the presidential race against Kamala.
Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams were originally planned for an eight -day mission, but were forced to remain after technical problems the Boeing's Starliner who brought them to the ISS
Musk supported Trump during the presidential race of 2024, donated $ 288 million to his campaign and appeared on various Maga Rallies
During a press conference on Friday, Ken Bowersox, associated manager of the NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate, admitted that in the White House in the White House postponed for political reasons, but he was not part of the discussions.
The crew that Williams and Wilmore replaces includes the Japanese Takuya Onishi, the Russian Kirill Peskov and Nasa's Anne Mcclain and Nichole Ayers.
Wednesday's launch was canceled due to a problem with the hydraulic system with the Falcon 9 Rocket. NASA said teams work to tackle the problem.
This mission is said to have brought Williams and Wilmore on Sunday.
NASA was raised the return mission two weeks later after Trump told Musk to 'go' Williams and Wilmore ', and said that Biden had' left 'them in space.
Before the president's request, the astronauts did not return until March 26.
“It has been a roller coaster for them, probably a bit more than for us,” said Williams about her family.
“We are here, we have a mission – we just do what we do every day, and every day is interesting because we are in space and it is very nice.”
When the new crew, called Crew -10, arrives on board the station, Wilmore, Williams and two others – NASA -Astronaut Nick Hague and Russian Kosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov can return to the earth in a capsule that has been attached to the station since September.
Wilmore and Williams flew to the ISS as the first test team of Boeing's Starliner, who suffered problems with the propulsion system in space.
The Falcon 9 Rocket from SpaceX would launch from Kennedy Space Center at 7:48 PM et Wednesday, but the mission was scrubbed in the 11th hour. Thursday was a back update for the next launch, but it was also canceled
The crew that Williams and Wilmore replaces consists of the Japanese Takuya Onishi (right), the Russian Kirill Peskov (left) and Nasa's Anne McClain (second left) and Nichole Ayers (second right)
NASA thought it was too risky for the astronauts to fly home on the Boeing Craft. This led to the current plan to bring them home in a SpaceX capsule that arrived in September.
The space agency gave Boeing $ 4.5 billion contract to develop Starliner in an attempt to compete with Musk's SpaceX.
Bowersox said on Friday that SpaceX 'helped with many options' to reduce Williams and Wilmore earlier, but The final decision was cost.
He explained that they discussed that they add a mission or brought the currently moored capsule home early, “but we quickly excluded them on the basis of how much money we have in our budget.”
The NASA budget for the tax year 2024 was around $ 30 billion.
It is after a report has established that the agency has spent millions on diversity, shares and inclusion (dei) subsidies and contracts, while Williams and Wilmore are stuck in space.
Bill Gerstensmaier, vice -president for SpaceX, also said on Friday that the delayed plan of NASA allowed the agency 'to use Sunny and Butch in a very productive way' and 'maintaining science.
The early return of the astronauts would have meant fewer bodies at the International Space Station (ISS) to continue research.
