NASA astronauts who had to spend nine months in space station, look back on their stay: “I am guilty, there are questions that I have not asked”

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The spacemen with packs of experience spent more than 280 days in space after their Boeing Starliner spacecraft had experienced technical problems in June last year. The two touched in the ISS, but returning with the Starliner turned out to be too dangerous, NASA said.

It led the spacecraft to return to Earth in September without a crew. For the two stranded astronauts there was nothing else to do than to wait for a “repayment of the guard”, where, as provided, new astronauts would fly to the ISS and Wilmore and Williams, with two other ISS spaces, could return.

Daughter

“Let’s make the best of it,” Williams described what she thought when the decision about the months of stay fell. “From then on we were completely ready to perform the tasks foreseen.” Wilmore had to think of his family, but he underlines. “It’s not about me, it’s about manned space travel, national matter.” And whether I should think of my daughter’s last year in high school that I wouldn’t be there? Of course, but we learned them (our family members) to be resilient. “

The astronauts do not blame Boeing, the manufacturer of the Starliner. “Space travel is difficult,” said Wilmore. “This is new technology that we are dealing with, so if you add it all together, it is difficult,” he explains. Something that Williams confirms. The problems with the spacecraft eager to put away if Boeing “who abandons them” is also more than a bridge too far for her.

“Guilty”

Wilmore prefers to put his hand in his own bosom. “There are many questions that I have not asked as a commander of CFT (Crew Flight Test, their original mission, ed.), So I am guilty … I will admit that to the nation. There are things that I did not have asked. I did not know at the time that I had to ask them, but was something to be bothered. A share in … There were shortcomings in tests and shortcomings in preparations that we did not provide. ” Wilmore added that he “does not want to point the finger” and instead “wants to look ahead” and wants to learn from earlier mistakes.

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Before and after the November presidential elections, the Trumpkamp accused President Biden that he “abandoned” the astronauts. Wilmore does not agree with that. “They have earned my confidence.” “And I am grateful for that,” he said, adding that it is ‘refreshing’, ‘reinforcing’ to see that both Joe Biden and the successor play an active role in NASA’s manned space program.

Williams is delighted with the fact that Biden and Trump were “involved” and “paid attention”. “The nine months in job around the earth enabled many people, including our national leaders, to see what is happening in the ISS and” Taking it seriously. “

SpaceX

It was with the fully automatic crew 9 spacecraft of the competing SpaceX by Elon Musk, with which the two eventually returned to Earth on March 18. That return journey went smoothly, where, as provided, the fall of the spacecraft was inhibited by opening parachutes, after which the space shed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida. A rescue crew sailed to the floating rig and brought the crew as provided for safety. The company even got a company from a few dolphins.