The entrepreneur Elon Musk has one of the most innovative technologies today. And that is precisely why NASA has turned to the entrepreneur for help. It is a reality, flights and space missions have a lot of risks and although everything is calculated under the strictest concreteness, something can go wrong and this can be, from fatal, to solvable, but assuming risks and that is exactly what NASA does not want to happen.
It all began on June 5, 2024, when two astronauts took off for what was supposed to be a mission of only 8 days, no more and no less, but it was not, and they have already been in space for two months.
This was because their spacecraft, the Starliner, had a series of technical problems, which made it difficult for it to dock with the calculated ease to the International Space Station. It suffered several helium leaks, which is responsible for propelling the spacecraft.
It is worth mentioning that this did not leave in a good place the company in charge of carrying out the mission, which was Boeing, which was also the first attempt to send a manned mission into space and for which it received the economic amount from NASA of 4.2 billion dollars.
Elon Musk takes a swipe at Boeing
Both NASA and Boeing tried to find a way to bring them home on the Starliner, but in the end it will be another spacecraft that will do it. And the one chosen by NASA has not been the one that initially started the mission. This one will be Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which is dealing a beastly blow to the competitor.
This decision also has consequences for the astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who according to the calculations being made, will return to Earth approximately in February 2025, and will do so in the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. Due to this operation to be carried out by Elon Musk’s company, it will get a total of 2,600 million dollars from NASA.