More than two months have passed since the spacecraft Starliner will dock at the International Space StationISS for its acronym in English, with the veteran astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore on board. It was the first manned flight of the capsule manufactured by Boeing and with which it was to be certified for use on future missions. However, Starliner experienced a series of technical problems during the outbound journey and NASA has not yet decided whether it is safe enough as if their astronauts could return
The space agency has also acknowledged that There are internal ‘disagreements’ about how to do it and on which no decision has yet been made. One of the options contemplated would extend the stay of Williams and Wilmore from the 8 days initially planned. eight months, until February 2025.
During a press conference held this Wednesday, the former astronaut Ken BowersoxNASA’s chief of manned spaceflight operations, said final decisions have not yet been made on how Wilmore and Williams will return to Earth. He also said there were Reasonable disagreements between NASA and Boeing engineers over the viability of the 28 boosters of the reaction control system used in approach and docking maneuvers. Five of these boosters overheated and failed. and, on the other hand, by the time the ship docked at the ISS it had detected Five helium leaksthe limit that NASA set before the flight so that the ship would not have problems.
‘I think it’s been very healthy. I have to admit that sometimes when we have disagreements, it’s not fun. It can be painful to have those discussions, but It is what makes us a good organization‘Bowersox said.
The two options that NASA is considering
NASA is primarily assessing two options. One, that Wilmore and Williams return as planned aboard the StarlinerThis would require NASA engineers to feel comfortable and confident about the performance of the thrusters, and if this were the case, the operation would take place during the second half of August or the first half of September. This is the option that NASA considers the ‘primary’ option, but it is not without problems.
As explained Steve Stitchmanager of the Commercial Crew Program, NASA does not yet know what caused the overheating that led to the failure of the five thrusters, but Yes, a factor that could have contributed. It appears that a Teflon seal in the fuel system can swell and disrupt its flow, leading to an inconsistent ignition.
The second option is for astronauts to return on a flight of SpaceX’s Dragon capsuleone of those responsible for transporting astronauts to the ISS, like the Soyuz Russian.
For the moment, the mission Crew-9 which was due to leave for the ISS on 19 August has seen delayed its release until no earlier than September 24The capsule can accommodate a crew of four, but in this case only two astronauts would go up. so that Wilmore and Williams could join them on the return flight. This, however, would not occur until February 2025which will extend their stay on the ISS to 8 months.
And what happens in this case with Starliner? The ship occupies one of the two docking ports of the space stationwhich affects the planned mission plan. Another issue of concern is the Starliner’s ability to operate without crewsomething that is part of its characteristics and that was tested during the development of the ship, but On this flight it was not configured for this type of operations.If NASA decides to have Starliner return uncrewed, Boeing must update the software to allow remote operation.
According to Bowersox, NASA will make a decision in the middle of this month.