Greetings, discerning investors! Welcome to your Daily Insight on Tuesday, March 18, 2025—a meticulous unraveling of why NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore were stranded aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for over nine months, only returning today via SpaceX’s Crew Dragon splashdown off Florida at 6:00 PM PDT. Launched June 5, 2024, for an eight-day Boeing Starliner test, their saga stretched 286 days—here’s why they were left in space and what it reveals. At GLHR Investing, we’re dissecting the timeline and implications—let’s explore with precision!
The trouble began pre-launch—Starliner’s history of delays (valve leaks, software glitches since 2019) set a shaky stage. On June 5, Williams and Wilmore lifted off from Cape Canaveral, but ascent revealed five helium leaks and five thruster failures—critical for re-entry. Docking succeeded June 6, yet NASA and Boeing faced a conundrum: risk a faulty return or extend the mission. Posts on X noted: “Starliner’s a gamble—safety first!” By June 14, NASA delayed the return to June 26 for thruster tests—two spacewalks later, issues persisted.
July brought clarity—ground tests on a Starliner replica showed thruster seals swelled under heat, cutting flow; helium leaks defied fixes. August 24 sealed the fate—NASA deemed Starliner too risky, sending it back uncrewed September 6 (landed White Sands). Williams and Wilmore joined Crew-9—Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov arrived September 29 with two empty seats—extending their stay to February 2025. X posts buzzed: “Boeing’s flop—SpaceX saves!” Crew-10’s delay—new Dragon capsule issues—pushed their return from February to late March, per NASA’s December 17 update.
Why not sooner? Budget ruled out a standalone SpaceX rescue—$100 million-plus—and ISS staffing demanded continuity; Crew-9 couldn’t leave without Crew-10 replacements (Anne McClain’s team docked March 16). X debated: “Politics or prudence?” Trump’s January push with Musk—claiming Biden stalled—clashed with NASA’s safety-first stance; no evidence of political delay emerged. Today’s splashdown—286 days, 121 million miles—ends the saga, dwarfed only by Rubio’s 371-day record.
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Invest with precision,
GLHR Investing Team
