Elon Musk called Russia’s assistance one of the options for the return of the Starliner crew to Earth. He wrote about this in the social network X.
“Russia is the only other option,” Musk said in response to a post by one of the users.
He wondered “what other options the two astronauts might have had if there had been no SpaceX.”
We are talking about astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams. They flew to the International Space Station (ISS) on Boeing’s first Starliner spacecraft on June 5, 2024. The astronauts were supposed to stay there for one week, but undocking was postponed several times due to faulty parts and helium leaks.
On August 24, NASA announced that Starliner would return to Earth without Wilmore and Williams, the astronauts will remain on the ISS until February 2025, RBC reminds.