They were scheduled to leave for eight days in space, and will remain there for eight months: The astronauts were transported to the International Space Station by the spacecraft Starliner NASA announced Saturday that Boeing will return to Earth only in February with its competitor SpaceX.
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Sequential difficulties encountered on Starliner This led to the difficult decision not to use this ship to return Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams to Earth. This was a snub to Boeing, which was already hobbled by repeated setbacks to its aircraft.
NASA has decided that Butch and Sonny will return with Crew-9 next February, Starliner “The vehicle will return without a crew,” NASA Administrator 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 the spacecraft. StarlinerThey have been on the International Space Station ever since, where their ship remains docked.
radical solution
It was normally supposed to return them to Earth after eight days, but problems discovered with its propulsion system have led NASA to question its reliability and consider a radical emergency solution: returning its passengers, who have already spent two and a half months in the flying lab, on a regular SpaceX mission in February.
For weeks, Boeing and NASA teams have been running tests to better understand the cause of the flight problems, particularly with regard to the spacecraft's thrusters.
The main concern is that Starliner It cannot achieve the thrust needed to exit orbit and begin its descent toward Earth.
Given that the ship is not safe enough, NASA condemns it to return to Earth empty.
So SpaceX’s regular mission, called Crew-9, should launch in late September, with just two astronauts instead of four. It will remain docked to the ISS until its scheduled return to Earth in February. Then two Boeing outcasts will be brought back in addition to the two Crew-9 astronauts.
Additional analysis
Boeing still said earlier this month that it was “confident” in its ability to do so. Starliner “To return safely with the crew.” But NASA has been extremely cautious since the fatal space shuttle accidents. Challenger and ColombiaHe continued to call for additional analysis.
This decision further damages the image of Boeing, which is also suffering from turmoil after a series of malfunctions in its aircraft.
Ten years ago, NASA ordered new spacecraft from both Boeing and SpaceX to carry its astronauts to the International Space Station. With two vehicles, it didn’t want to be left out in the cold if one or the other had a problem.
But Elon Musk's company has largely outpaced Boeing, and has been playing the role of America's space taxi alone for four years.
This is the first trip of Starliner The flight deck, which was completed years late due to setbacks during its development, was to be the last test before regular operations began.
