They were supposed to spend eight days in space, but they will stay there for eight months: the two astronauts transported to the International Space Station by the ship Starliner Boeing’s spacecraft will not return to Earth until February with competitor SpaceX, NASA announced Saturday.
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The serial difficulties encountered on the Starliner led to the difficult decision not to use the ship to bring Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams back to Earth. A snub for Boeing, already mired in repeated setbacks with its airliners.
“NASA has decided that Butch and Suni will return with Crew-9 next February, and that Starliner would return without a crew,” NASA chief Bill Nelson said at a news conference following a decision-making committee meeting on Saturday.
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams launched in early June aboard Starlinerand they have been on the ISS ever since, where their ship has remained docked.
Radical solution
It was supposed to bring them back to Earth eight days later, but problems detected in its propulsion system led NASA to question its reliability. And to consider a radical backup solution: to bring back its passengers, who have already spent two and a half months in the flying laboratory, with a regular SpaceX mission in February.
For weeks, Boeing and NASA teams have been conducting tests to better understand the cause of the problems encountered in flight, particularly on the spacecraft’s thrusters.
The main concern is that Starliner cannot achieve the thrust needed to break away from orbit and begin its descent toward Earth.
NASA decided that the ship was not safe enough and ordered it to return to Earth empty.
A regular SpaceX mission, named Crew-9, should therefore take off at the end of September, carrying only two astronauts instead of four. It would remain docked to the ISS until its return to Earth scheduled for February. And would then bring back the two Boeing castaways in addition to the two Crew-9 astronauts.
Additional analyses
Boeing still assured at the beginning of the month that it was “confident” in the ability to Starliner “to return safely with the crew.” But NASA, extremely cautious since the deadly space shuttle accidents Challenger And Columbiapersisted in calling for additional analyses.
This decision further tarnishes the image of Boeing, which is also in turmoil following a series of malfunctions on its planes.
NASA ordered a new spacecraft from Boeing and SpaceX ten years ago to each carry its astronauts to the ISS. With two vehicles, it wants to avoid being left without a solution in the event of a problem with one or the other.
But Elon Musk’s company has largely beaten Boeing and has been acting alone as the American space taxi for four years now.
This first flight of Starliner The crewed test, completed years late due to setbacks during its development, was to be the final test before starting regular operations.
