Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been on an unexpectedly monthslong assignment after serving on Boeing’s Starliner crewed test flight, are conducting a spacewalk Thursday. The duo is venturing outside the International Space Station to remove degraded radio communications hardware.
Boeing hasn't been having the best of luck this year. Two Astronauts stuck in space because of mechanical failures on a Boeing spacecraft, only adds to the pile of blunders. But how did this happen? and what are the astronauts going to do now?
The vice president leading Boeing's Starliner spacecraft unit, Mark Nappi, has left his role in the program and been replaced by the company's International Space Station program manager, John Mulholland,
Late Tuesday afternoon, Elon Musk put out a message on X saying that President Donald Trump had asked him to return the two Boeing Starliner astronauts who have been on the space station since June as soon as possible.
Posts by President Trump and Elon Musk roiled the space community, raising the prospect of an earlier-than-planned return for the Starliner crew.
A spokesperson with NASA, which oversees SpaceX’s flights to the ISS, said “NASA and SpaceX are expeditiously working to safely return the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore as soon as practical, while also preparing for the launch of Crew-10 to complete a handover between expeditions.”
Elon Musk used his new government efficiency role to stop by the operations of his competitor Boeing to look into the long-delayed efforts to renovate two 747 jets into the next generation of Air Force One jets,
Air Force None After leaving the federal government's operations in shambles and causing major confusion over healthcare funding, SpaceX CEO and White House advisor Elon Musk is prioritizing the delivery of a pair of luxurious Boeing 747s so he and president Donald Trump can jet around in style.
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will conduct a spacewalk outside the International Space Station to swab the orbiting lab for evidence of microorganisms.
A SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is already scheduled to return the astronauts under a plan announced by NASA in August.
Leaders at Boeing Co. have been struggling to turn the company around after years of bad headlines. Now, some investors are hoping they’ll look to a new tactic: selling some of its businesses, which could shore up the company’s balance sheet and lift the stock from its doldrums.