{"id":24609,"date":"2025-03-21T01:12:21","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T01:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=24609"},"modified":"2025-03-21T01:12:21","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T01:12:21","slug":"nasa-says-stranded-astronauts-couldnt-be-brought-home-sooner-due-to-money-despite-30-billion-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=24609","title":{"rendered":"NASA Says \u2018Stranded Astronauts\u2019 Couldn\u2019t Be Brought Home Sooner Due To Money, Despite $30 Billion Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-nasa-astronauts-suni-williams-and-butch-wilmore-recently-returned-home-after-spending-nine-months-in-space\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">NASA Astronauts Suni Williams And Butch Wilmore Recently Returned Home After Spending Nine Months In Space<\/h2>\n<p>NASA has finally explained why astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore were stranded in space for nine months.<\/p>\n<p>Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore were aboard the Boeing Starliner capsule, which launched on June 5, 2024. Their mission was supposed to last just over a week at the International Space Station (ISS) before they reboarded the Starliner to return to Earth.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Their original return date was set for June 14, 2024.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>But things took an unexpected turn when the Starliner began experiencing several problems. Because of this, NASA decided to bring the capsule back to Earth by remote control without Williams and Wilmore on board to ensure their safety. This left them stranded on the ISS with no way back.<\/p>\n<p>After this unexpected situation, Elon Musk\u2019s company, SpaceX, began working on a new capsule to bring the two astronauts home.<\/p>\n<p>However, the process took much longer than expected. After nine months, SpaceX ended up sending a used capsule named Dragon to complete the mission.<\/p>\n<p>Dragon arrived at the ISS with Crew-10 on Saturday, March 15, and Williams and Wilmore were officially brought back to Earth on Tuesday, March 18. They landed off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, in the evening.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Two days after Crew-10 arrived at the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Space_Station?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Space_Station<\/a>, Dragon and Crew-9 are set to depart on Tuesday, March 18 \u2192 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ZZEmGU8Aar\">https:\/\/t.co\/ZZEmGU8Aar<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Qrpd1Rq40j\">pic.twitter.com\/Qrpd1Rq40j<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 SpaceX (@SpaceX) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SpaceX\/status\/1901678704700567723?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 17, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-why-did-it-take-so-long-to-bring-suni-williams-and-butch-wilmore-back-home\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why Did It Take So Long To Bring Suni Williams And Butch Wilmore Back Home?<\/h2>\n<p>A situation like this has never happened before, which has left many people wondering why the two astronauts were stuck in space for so long.<\/p>\n<p>While making sure they got home safely was the main concern, more details have come out about what caused the delays.<\/p>\n<p>During a press conference before their return, NASA\u2019s Associate Administrator for Space Operations, Ken Bowersox, explained more about why it took as long as it did.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Unfortunately, one of the main reasons for the delay was money.<\/strong>\u00a0The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sciencetech\/article-14491221\/NASA-finally-reveals-shocking-reason-left-astronauts-stranded-space-9-months.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Daily Mail<\/a>\u00a0reports that NASA\u2019s 2024 budget was around $30 billion, but surprisingly, by the time this problem happened, there weren\u2019t enough funds to take faster action.<\/p>\n<p>The outlet reports that Bowersox recalled discussions with SpaceX about adding a mission or bringing the docked capsule home early. However, those options were ruled out \u201cpretty quickly\u201d due to the budget being limited after major\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/budgets-plans-and-reports\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">spending in 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bowersox also addressed the widespread claims that Williams and Wilmore\u2019s extended stay in space was due to political reasons.<\/strong>\u00a0He stated that if any discussions took place at the White House, he was not involved and could not confirm them.<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, it\u2019s great to see that Suni Willams and Butch Wilmore are finally back home with their families and loved ones.<\/p>\n<p>In a memorable moment during their landing, a group of dolphins even swam around them, making for a very picturesque welcome home.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You can watch the video of that below.<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The unplanned welcome crew!<\/p>\n<p>Crew-9 had some surprise visitors after splashing down this afternoon.\ud83d\udc2c <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/yuOxtTsSLV\">pic.twitter.com\/yuOxtTsSLV<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NASA&#8217;s Johnson Space Center (@NASA_Johnson) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NASA_Johnson\/status\/1902124589636784140?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 18, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; NASA Astronauts Suni Williams And Butch Wilmore Recently Returned Home After Spending Nine Months In Space NASA has finally explained why astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore were &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24609"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24611,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24609\/revisions\/24611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}