2024-08-24 18:05:57
Two astronauts from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States who flew to the International Space Station (ISS) in June aboard Boeing’s faulty Starliner capsule will need to return to Earth on a SpaceX spacecraft early next year, announced Bill Nelson, head of the federal aerospace office.
The official also admitted that issues with Starliner’s propulsion system were deemed too risky to bring its first crew back home.
The agency’s decision, to turn to Boeing’s main competitor in space to bring back the astronauts, is one of NASA’s most significant in years. Boeing had hoped its Starliner test mission would redeem the troubled program after years of difficulties in development and over $1.6 billion in cost overruns since 2016.
Nelson, speaking with reporters at a press conference in Houston, said he discussed the agency’s decision with Boeing’s new CEO, Kelly Ortberg.
“He expressed to me his intention that they will continue to work on the issues once Starliner is safely back,” Nelson said about Ortberg.
Boeing is also dealing with quality issues in the production of commercial airplanes, its most critical products.
NASA veteran astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, both former military test pilots, became the first crew to travel aboard Starliner on June 5 when they were launched to the ISS for what was expected to be an eight-day test mission.
However, the propulsion system of Starliner suffered a series of failures in the first 24 hours of its flight to the ISS, triggering months of cascading delays. Five of its 28 thrusters failed, and several helium leaks occurred, which is used to pressurize the thrusters.
In an unusual reshuffling of NASA’s astronaut operations, the two astronauts are now expected to return in February 2025 on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, which will launch next month as part of a routine astronaut rotation mission. Two of the four seats on the Crew Dragon will be kept empty for Wilmore and Williams.
Starliner will detach from the ISS without crew and attempt to return to Earth as it would have with astronauts on board.
Boeing has struggled for years to develop Starliner, a capsule shaped like a teardrop designed to compete with Crew Dragon as a second American option for sending astronaut crews to and from low Earth orbit.
Starliner failed a test in 2019 to launch without crew to the ISS, but largely succeeded in a second attempt in 2022, where it also encountered issues with the thrusters. Its June mission with its first crew was necessary for NASA to certify the capsule for routine flights, but now the path to certifying Starliner for crewed missions has been disrupted.
Since Starliner docked at the ISS in June, Boeing has been working to investigate what caused the issues with the thrusters and the helium leaks. The company conducted tests and simulations on Earth to gather data it has used to attempt to convince NASA officials that Starliner is safe to fly with the crew back home.
But the results of those tests raised more difficult engineering questions and ultimately failed to allay NASA officials’ concerns about Starliner’s ability to make its crewed return journey, the most challenging and complex part of the test mission.
The decision by NASA, and Starliner’s now uncertain path to certification, will add to the crises facing Ortberg, who started this month with the goal of rebuilding the aircraft manufacturer’s reputation after a panel from a 737 MAX dramatically detached in mid-flight in January.
[With information from Reuters]
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