Opinion and Commentary By Donna Westfall – March 16, 2025 – picture credit ISS National Lab and Wikipedia

We did. In between watching episodes of that comedy-drama, Resident Alien, we would switch back and forth to catch up with the launch, flight and docking at the ISS.

Let’s take a walk down memory lane. The first man to orbit the earth was Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, on April 12, 1961. The first American to orbit the earth was John Glenn on February 20, 1962. We definitely watched that. It was so thrilling. But in the last 60 years we lost track of space travel.

Fast forward to 1998. Construction started on the ISS and was completed two years later. For the last 24 years there has been an international crew from five different space agencies and representing 15 countries.

The number of visitors is astounding: 281 people from 22 countries have been up at the ISS. I don’t know how they do it. Astronauts and cosmonauts go through rigorous training. It took 28 1/2 hours for the last flight to dock.

Other things I was unaware of. ISS orbits earth 16 times a day. The NASA Space Shuttle program ended in 2021. Elon Musk founded SpaceX in 2002, a private company. NOTE: Last year Musk moved SpaceX out of Hawthorne, California to Starbase, Texas because of California’s numerous laws making it too hard for businesses to do business. After several unsuccessful launch attempts, in 2008 Falcon 1 was successful. Fast forward to this week. The Falcon 9 rocket was launched March 15th. Docking took two hours. Why is that? There’s a program you can access on YouTube by Jared Owen, “How does the Crew Dragon Spacecraft work? (SpaceX).” Definitely worth watching. By the way, NASA is the largest customer of SpaceX.

While we were watching the launch, there were people narrating and referring to Dragon. What did that mean? The Crew Dragon capsule was designed to be reusable. While it can take up to seven crew members, up until now, only four have gone. Cargo is stored underneath their seats.

How much does each launch cost? For SpaceX it was $62 Million. But because of inflation and rising costs, their price increased to $67 Million. By comparison it used to cost NASA $1.5 Billion.

Why did SpaceX need to retrieve Astronauts Butch Wilmore, 62 years old and Suni Williams, 59 years old? Because back in June, 2024 their Boeing Starliner capsule developed helium leaks and mechanical issues with the thrusters. They were set to spend only eight days. Instead they’ve been up there for nine months.

What will happen to the ISS? It’s due to be decommissioned around 2030 because of costs associated with repairing the wear and tear. Did you know that the ISS is the size of a football field? I would expect that SpaceX is involved in constructing a new space station.

President Trump asked Elon Musk to bring Butch and Suni back and accused former President Biden of abandoning them for months. It’s good to have friends in high place.

Tomorrow, at long last, they are set to return to Earth.