This undated NASA handout photo released on July 2, 2024, shows NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts (from top) Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams inside the vestibule between the International Space Station’s Harmony module and the forward port of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. | Photo credit: AFP
NASA said on Wednesday (August 14, 2024) that it was still deciding whether to continue two astronauts They will remain at the International Space Station until early next year and send their troubled Boeing capsule back empty.
Instead of flying Boeing’s Starliner back to Earth, Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams will board SpaceX’s next flight. This option will allow them to remain on the space station until next February.
Also read:Why NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams could stay in space until 2025?
Test pilots had estimated about a week’s travel time before the Starliner rocket lifted off for its first crewed launch. But thruster failures and a helium leak plagued the capsule’s journey to the space station, casting doubts over its ability to return safely and leaving astronauts confused.
NASA officials said they are analyzing more data before making a decision by late next week or early next week. These thrusters are critical for keeping the capsule in the right position as it descends from orbit.
“We have time before we bring Starliner home, and we want to use that time wisely,” said Ken Bowersox, NASA’s space operations mission chief.
“We just don’t have enough information and data to make any simple, clear calculations,” said NASA security chief Russ DeLoach.
DeLoach said the space agency wants to make room for all kinds of ideas, as was the case with NASA’s two shuttle accidents, Challenger and Columbia, when dissenting views were ignored.
“That can mean sometimes we don’t move very fast because we’re getting everything out, and I think you can see that here,” he said.
The move to SpaceX would require removing two of the four astronauts assigned to the next ferry flight, currently targeted for late September. Wilmore and Williams will take empty seats on SpaceX’s Dragon capsule after the half-year mission ends.
Another complication: There are only two parking spots for American capsules on the space station. Boeing’s capsule would have to depart before SpaceX’s Dragon arrives to free up a spot.
Boeing says Starliner can still take astronauts home safely. The company posted a list of tests it has conducted on the thrusters in space and on the ground since liftoff earlier this month.
NASA would like to keep SpaceX’s current crew there until replacements arrive, unless there is an emergency. The four of them were supposed to return to Earth this month, but uncertainty over Starliner added a seventh month to their mission, forcing them to stay there until the end of September. Most space stations last six months, though some last a full year.
Wilmore and Williams are retired Navy captains who spent several months aboard the space station several years ago. They dove into the station’s work as soon as they arrived, helping with experiments and repairs.
“They’ll do what we tell them to do. That’s their job as astronauts,” NASA chief astronaut Joe Acaba said.
He said: “This mission is a test flight and as Butch and Suni said before launch, they knew this mission would not be perfect.”
Wanting competitive services and backup options, NASA hired SpaceX and Boeing to fly astronauts to and from the space station after the shuttle was retired in 2011.
SpaceX’s first astronaut flight took place in 2020. Boeing had so much trouble with its initial uncrewed test flight in 2019 that it was ordered to fly again. Then more problems cropped up, costing the company more than $1 billion to fix before it could fly astronauts.