Published 4 September 2024 at 13.02
Foreign. Two Nasa astronauts have been stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) for nearly three months after Boeing's Starliner capsule suffered technical problems. Now the American space agency Nasa is forced to turn to Elon Musk's SpaceX to get its staff back to Earth, writes the Daily Mail.
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After Boeing's Starliner , with astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore on board, suffered major technical problems during their mission to the ISS, it became too risky to use the capsule for their return journey.
Nasa has therefore planned to use the SpaceX Dragon capsule for to bring them home. The mission was to be carried out using the Falcon 9 rocket, but an explosion during a recent launch has delayed that operation as well.
The FAA has opened an investigation into the Falcon 9 crash, and if the investigation drags on in time, the astronauts risk remaining on the ISS until February 2025 or beyond.
At the same time, Nasa and SpaceX are working together to ensure that the planned rescue operation can be carried out as soon as possible.