2024-07-31 23:19:44
Washington: NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have been stranded in space for nearly two months due to thruster problems and helium leaks on the Boeing Starliner spacecraft. Both are present on the International Space Station. NASA has been constantly saying that both astronauts are safe. Now it seems as if Elon Musk’s company SpaceX will have to intervene regarding their return. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft has been successfully carrying astronauts to the space station and bringing them back for years. Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said in a press conference on Thursday that we have two different systems that we are flying. He was referring to Boeing Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. Stich said, ‘Obviously, the backup option is to use a different system. I would not like to go into all those details until we get to the point of using them.’ The Commercial Crew Program had given funding to SpaceX and Boeing to build their respective spacecraft.
What was the mission?
SpaceX built its spacecraft very quickly and cheaply. Crew Dragon completed its first space flight in 2020. At the same time, the Starliner spacecraft is facing problems. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk tweeted about the disparity between Starliner and Crew Dragon even on the day of Williams and Wilmore’s launch. He wrote, ‘Boeing has a lot of non-technical managers.’ The astronauts reached the space station on June 6 via Boeing Starliner. Their goal was to stay here for 8 days.
NASA has a backup plan
Their main mission was to fly on Boeing Starliner. As they are the first crew of the spacecraft, they had to return from space. Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager of commercial crew program efforts at Boeing, said on Thursday, “We kept saying that the mission would be eight days. I think we all knew that it was going to take longer than that. We did not talk much about how long it would take.” The astronauts were initially expected to return within 45 days. But even after 51 days, both are stranded. Stich said, “NASA always has emergency options. We are trying to bring them to Earth via Starliner.”