[ad_1]
In this photo provided by NASA, astronauts Butch Wilmore (left) and Suni Williams inspect security hardware on the International Space Station on August 9, 2024. | Photo credit: AP
NASA took this decision on Saturday. (August 24, 2024) It’s too risky to get two astronauts back to Earth in Boeing’s new trouble-free capsule, and they’ll have to wait until next year to fly back home with SpaceX. What should have been a week-long test flight for the pair will now last more than eight months.
The experienced pilot has been stranded on the International Space Station since early JuneThe new capsule was hampered by thruster failures and a helium leak on its journey to the space station, and it eventually became stuck as engineers conducted tests and debated what to do on the return trip.
After almost three months, the decision was finally taken from the highest level of NASA on Saturday (August 24, 2024). Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams They will return to the SpaceX spacecraft in February. Their empty Starliner capsule will undock in early September and attempt to return on autopilot.
As Starliner’s test pilots, the pair were supposed to oversee this crucial final leg of the journey, which included landing in the US desert.
“Test flights by their nature are neither safe nor routine,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said. “And so this decision … is a commitment to safety.”
“This was not an easy decision, but it is absolutely the right one,” said NASA Associate Administrator Jim Freeh.
It was a major setback for Boeing, raising safety concerns about the company’s airplane. Boeing had counted on Starliner’s first crewed flight to revive the troubled program after years of delays and rising costs. The company had insisted Starliner was safe based on all recent thruster tests both in space and on the ground.
Boeing did not attend the news conference held by NASA on Saturday, but issued a statement: “Boeing’s focus, first and foremost, is on the safety of the crew and spacecraft. We are executing the mission as assigned by NASA, and we are preparing the spacecraft for a safe and successful uncrewed return.”
Retired Navy captains with long experience in space flight, Wilmore, 61, and Williams, 58, expected surprises when they accepted the shakedown cruise of a new spacecraft, though not to this extent.
Before launching June 5 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, he said his family accepted the uncertainty and stress of his professional career decades ago. During his only orbital news conference last month, he said he was confident in the thruster testing being done. He said he had no complaints and enjoyed being hands-on with space station work.
Wilmore’s wife, Deanna, was equally unconcerned in an interview earlier this month with WVLT-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee, her home state. She was already prepared for a delay until next February: “You’ve just got to get on with it.”
There were very few options.
The SpaceX capsule currently parked at the space station is reserved for the four residents who have been there since March. They will return in late September, their stay extended by a month because of the Starliner dilemma. NASA said it would be unsafe to cram two more people into the capsule, barring an emergency.
The docked Russian Soyuz capsule is even more compact, capable of flying only three people — two of them Russians, who will serve a one-year stint.
So Wilmore and Williams will wait for SpaceX’s next taxi flight. It is scheduled to launch in late September, carrying two astronauts instead of four for the regular six-month stay. NASA removed two astronauts to make room for Wilmore and Williams on the return flight in late February.
NASA said there was no serious consideration of asking SpaceX for a quick stand-alone rescue. Last year, the Russian space agency had to quickly prepare a replacement Soyuz capsule for three people whose original vehicle was damaged by space junk. The change extended their mission by a year, a U.S. space endurance record still held by Frank Rubio.
Starliner’s troubles began long before its latest flight.
Faulty software hampered the first test flight without a crew in 2019, forcing a restart in 2022. Then came parachute and other problems, including a helium leak in the capsule’s propellant system that doomed a launch attempt in May. The leak was eventually deemed isolated and small enough to be of no concern. But more leaks occurred after takeoff, and five thrusters also failed.
All but one of the smaller thrusters restarted in flight. But engineers are puzzled as to why some thruster seals swell, obstructing propellant lines, then return to their normal size.
These 28 thrusters are crucial. Besides being essential for rendezvous at the space station, they keep the capsule on course at the end of the flight, as the big engines take the craft out of orbit. A tilt could spell disaster.
With the Columbia disaster still fresh in many people’s minds – the shuttle broke apart during re-entry in 2003, killing all seven aboard – NASA embraced open debate over the Starliner’s return capability. Dissenting views were suppressed during Columbia’s failed flight, just as they were during Challenger in 1986.
Despite Saturday’s decision, NASA isn’t giving up faith in Boeing.
NASA a decade ago planned to include two competing U.S. companies in its commercial crew program to carry astronauts in the post-shuttle era. Boeing got the big contract: more than $4 billion, while SpaceX got $2.6 billion.
SpaceX completed the first of its nine astronaut flights in 2020 with the station supply run, while Boeing was mired in design flaws that cost the company more than $1 billion. NASA officials are still hopeful that Starliner’s problems can be fixed in time for another crewed flight next year or so.
[ad_2]
Source link