BLUF: From Stranded to Splashdown

Two astronauts who spent more than nine months on the International Space Station (ISS) splashed home off the coast of Florida in the early evening of Tuesday, March 18th in the comfort of a SpaceX dragon capsule. Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore were joined by fellow NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, and much to the Steer team’s delight, were greeted by dolphins who swam up to inspect the unusual craft.

For those of you not already familiar, last summer, Williams and Wilmore arrived at the ISS aboard a Boeing spacecraft for what was anticipated to be an eight-day mission. Problems with the aerospace capsule quickly turned the week-long trip into a months-long saga, with reportedly no immediate solutions available to bring the two astronauts home.

The use of the SpaceX dragon capsule has raised questions about Boeing’s reliability, and may reflect the coming of a new age of defense and government contracting companies. SpaceX has revolutionized the space industry by using reusable rockets to exploit the benefits of economies of scale, allowing the company to accelerate development of new technologies at lower costs than ever before. As we enter a new cosmic age, with discussions of manned missions to Mars, it is imperative that the U.S. remains at the forefront of space exploration.

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