For reasons They were not immediately clear, the founder of SpaceX, Elon Musk, started to his social media side X on Tuesday evening, to embarrassing cosmic termination.
“@Potus asked @spacex to bring 2 astronauts home as soon as possible at @space_station. We will do it ” Musk wrote. “Terrible that Biden administration left them there for so long.”
Now, in general, in Ars Technica, our principle is not to write stories strictly based on things, says Elon Musk on X. However, this statement was so declarative, and so causing consternation for NASA, it has some explanations.
First of all, the most likely explanation of this is that Elon is Elon. “He trolls,” said one of my best sources of space policy shortly after the Tweet Musk. Finally, the tweet was sent at 16:20 in the central time zone, where SpaceX is now its headquarters.
Even if it trollers, it will continue to cause headaches in NASA.
First of all, NASA took place a great time to emphasize that two astronauts mentioned here – Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams – are not at an international space station. There is a debate on whether there was a period of last summer recently, when the couple who flew to the space station on the Boeing Starliner vehicle at the beginning of June, was stuck briefly. This mission was slowed down with technical problems, including problems with the Starliner drive system. (Ultimately Starliner flew home without a crew.) Jednak od czasu przybycia misji Crewx-9 z dwoma pustymi miejscami pod koniec września Wilmore i Williams mieli bezpieczną jazdę do domu. The dragon vehicle is currently being managed at a space station.
Then the musk appears, with one of the most eminent microphones in the world, shouting that NASA astronauts are orphaned and that President Trump wants them to save them. It is a bomb for the founder of Spacex, who became a close advisor to Trump to say publicly.
It is also possible that Musk did not trolling and that Trump asked SpaceX to return Wilmore and Williams earlier for political reasons – namely, in their opinion, embarrassing Biden administration.
Neither NASA nor SpaceX immediately answered at the request for comment on Tuesday evening.
Could they come back?
If Trump demanded that NASA restore astronauts, the crew-9 mission may return to earth earlier. At the beginning of April, it is currently to fall in the Pacific Ocean. According to NASA and Astronauts themselves, Wilmore and Williams are doing well in space. They have a lot of food and clothes and a lot of work to do. Privately, the sources said the same. Although Wilmore and Williams did not at first expect to spend 10 months in space, they do not take grave risk. In fact, part of their tasks is a solution to such unforeseen situations.
The current date of return is driven by the premiere of crew mission-10, also on a spacex vehicle. This mission is flying a up-to-date Dragon spacecraft, and SpaceX previously asked for a little more time to process and prepare a spacecraft for the debut premiere. This shifted the purpose of flying this mission from February to March 25. To meet this date, the sources indicated that SpaceX is possible, it may need the right, previously moved dragon-maybe a dragon designed for apply by the mission Axiom-4-to mission Axiom-4-to mission Axiom-4-to the mission Axiom-4 complete crew-10.