SpaceX Launches NASA's Crew-10 Mission To ISS (apnews.com) 13
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched a four-member crew to the International Space Station on Friday night, paving the way for NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to return to Earth after being there for nine months due to issues with Boeing's Starliner capsule. Arrival is set for late Saturday night. The Associated Press reports: NASA wants overlap between the two crews so Wilmore and Williams can fill in the newcomers on happenings aboard the orbiting lab. That would put them on course for an undocking next week and a splashdown off the Florida coast, weather permitting. The duo will be escorted back by astronauts who flew up on a rescue mission on SpaceX last September alongside two empty seats reserved for Wilmore and Williams on the return leg.
Reaching orbit from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, the newest crew includes NASA's Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, both military pilots; and Japan's Takuya Onishi and Russia's Kirill Peskov, both former airline pilots. They will spend the next six months at the space station, considered the normal stint, after springing Wilmore and Williams free. "Spaceflight is tough, but humans are tougher," McClain said minutes into the flight. You can watch a recording of the launch here.
Wilmore and Williams aren't stranded on the International Space Station, and they weren't abandoned, the astronauts reminded CNN in a rare space-to-earth interview last month. "That's been the rhetoric. That's been the narrative from day one: stranded, abandoned, stuck -- and I get it. We both get it," [NASA astronaut Butch] Wilmore said. "But that is, again, not what our human spaceflight program is about. We don't feel abandoned, we don't feel stuck, we don't feel stranded." Wilmore added a request: "If you'll help us change the rhetoric, help us change the narrative. Let's change it to 'prepared and committed.' That's what we prefer..."
Reaching orbit from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, the newest crew includes NASA's Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, both military pilots; and Japan's Takuya Onishi and Russia's Kirill Peskov, both former airline pilots. They will spend the next six months at the space station, considered the normal stint, after springing Wilmore and Williams free. "Spaceflight is tough, but humans are tougher," McClain said minutes into the flight. You can watch a recording of the launch here.
Wilmore and Williams aren't stranded on the International Space Station, and they weren't abandoned, the astronauts reminded CNN in a rare space-to-earth interview last month. "That's been the rhetoric. That's been the narrative from day one: stranded, abandoned, stuck -- and I get it. We both get it," [NASA astronaut Butch] Wilmore said. "But that is, again, not what our human spaceflight program is about. We don't feel abandoned, we don't feel stuck, we don't feel stranded." Wilmore added a request: "If you'll help us change the rhetoric, help us change the narrative. Let's change it to 'prepared and committed.' That's what we prefer..."
Uh-oh, the astronauts countered Trump's narrative (Score:1)
Maybe they should've waited until they got back planet-side...
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
Yeah, I guess that they haven't been paying much attention to the news since they've been up there.
Otherwise, they would be keeping their mouths shut to avoid offending their bosses boss.
Re: (Score:2)
What a stupid fucking predicament we've got ourselves in.
"stuck" or "stranded" (Score:1)
They push back on "stuck" and "stranded" because they could have left any time ... at the cost of using up an enormously expensive rocket. It's also true that if you leave your friend at a party 30 miles from home, she's not "stranded" because she could call an Uber and pay $200 anytime. But I bet she wouldn't see it that way.
Since returning the astronauts sooner than this month would have used up a rocket that costs $300 million and the budget did not exist for such extra rocket ... yeah they were fucking
Re: "stuck" or "stranded" (Score:2, Troll)
the biggest damage to any space program has a name - elona muskova and his space junk factory, schpaze yikes.
Re: "stuck" or "stranded" (Score:2, Flamebait)
Re: (Score:1)
Because launching space junk to LEO with 50 year old NASA-developed tech is such a big deal
I know right? It's so easy that even Boeing can do it successfully. And just look at all of the competitors clamoring to dock with the ISS. There must be dozens of ships waiting in line to dock with the ISS right now. That's why that 3 hour tour got extended for 3/4 of a year. .
Re: (Score:1)
They push back on "stuck" and "stranded" because they could have left any time ... at the cost of using up an enormously expensive rocket. It's also true that if you leave your friend at a party 30 miles from home, she's not "stranded" because she could call an Uber and pay $200 anytime. But I bet she wouldn't see it that way.
Translation: They were not stranded. It was more economically viable for them to wait.
Since returning the astronauts sooner than this month would have used up a rocket that costs $300 million and the budget did not exist for such extra rocket ... yeah they were fucking stranded.
Translation: They were not stranded. They were stranded.
In a life or death situation they would have been brought back early but at the cost of severe damage to the ISS program and that wasn't going to happen except in a life or death situation.
Translation: They were not stranded.
Truly, you have a dizzying intellect.
Re: "stuck" or "stranded" (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Not being able to get back whenever they wanted, means you're stranded.
Only if you're too dim-witted to come up with an analogous situation which disproves the assertion, which apparently you are.
If the Navy leaves a detachment of marines on an island, have they abandoned them there?
And they had to bump two astronauts going up for them to be able to return with the planned returnvessel next week.
What the fuck does that have to do with anything? lol.
I love stupid people.
SpaceX goes boldly Woke (Score:2)
Build relationships choose cooperation and believe in the inherent goodness of all people across the world. To my family and friend without you I would not be here, explore boldly, live gracefully go through ten.