Source: AFP
Two US astronauts who arrived at the International Space Station on Boeing’s Starliner will have to return home with rival SpaceX, NASA said on Saturday, in a fresh public relations blow to the crisis-hit aerospace giant.
The return of Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams was delayed for weeks by thruster malfunctions on the Boeing spacecraft, and NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced that they will return to Earth in February, while the Starliner will return without a crew.
“A test flight, by its very nature, is neither safe nor routine. The decision to keep Butch and Sunny on the International Space Station and bring the Boeing Starliner home without a crew is the result of our commitment to safety.” , Nelson told reporters. “Our core value is safety.”
A NASA statement said the new approach would allow the space agency and Boeing to continue collecting data on the Starliner when it flies home “while also accepting no more risk than necessary for its crew.”
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The development creates another headache for Boeing, as the two astronauts will have to spend a total of eight months in orbit, not the eight days originally planned.
But Nelson seemed to go out of his way to say the space agency had not lost confidence in Boeing and planned to continue working with it so the space agency has two vehicles capable of ferrying astronauts to and from the ISS.
He said he was “100 percent confident that Boeing will launch the Starliner with a crew again.”
In a statement, Boeing said it “continues to focus … on the safety of the crew and spacecraft” and is preparing the Starliner “for a safe and successful return without a crew.”
Back to standby
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Source: AFP
After years of Starliner development delays, the spacecraft had finally lifted off in early June carrying the two veteran astronauts to the ISS.
But on June 6, as the Starliner approached the space station, “NASA and Boeing detected helium leaks and experienced problems with the spacecraft’s reaction control thrusters,” the space agency said.
Amid intense efforts to diagnose the problem and try to fix it — including both ground and in-flight testing — NASA had to put the astronauts’ return on hold indefinitely.
The big concern was that the Starliner might not have the propulsive power to pull itself out of orbit and begin its descent toward Earth.
NASA officials met before their announcement on Saturday, finally agreeing to the highly unusual option of bringing the astronauts back from the flying lab not on their own craft, but on a pre-assigned SpaceX vehicle in February.
“It was too much of a risk with the crew,” said senior NASA official Steve Stich, with Norm Knight, another agency official, adding that the astronauts “fully support the agency’s decision and are prepared to continue this mission in ISS. “
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According to the new plan, the SpaceX Crew-9 mission will take off in late September, but will carry only two passengers instead of the originally planned four.
NASA and SpaceX are already working on reconfiguring the Crew-9 Dragon seats, “and adapting the manifest to carry additional cargo, personal items and Dragon-specific spacesuits for Wilmore and Williams,” the space agency said.
Before SpaceX launches, an uncrewed Starliner will first have to head to earth, ensuring SpaceX will have a docking port on the ISS.
It will remain docked to the ISS until its scheduled return in February, bringing back its crew members and their two stranded colleagues.
Boeing vs. SpaceX
The approach represents a further blow to the already tarnished image of US giant Boeing, whose plane has been dogged in recent years by safety and quality control concerns.
Ten years ago, after the retirement of the Space Shuttle, NASA ordered new ships from both Boeing and SpaceX that could carry astronauts to and from the ISS.
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With two such vehicles available, NASA reasoned, there would always be a backup in case either one ran into trouble.
But Elon Musk’s SpaceX beat Boeing to the punch and has been the only vehicle used to taxi astronauts for the past four years.
This year’s crewed Starliner flight, which followed years of delays and frustrations in the craft’s development, was intended to be the final test of the vehicle before it enters regular service.
NASA said the astronauts on the ISS have plenty of supplies, are trained for extended stays and have many experiments to perform.
Source: AFP
