Photo: NASA via Agence France-Presse Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams took off in early June aboard “Starliner,” and have been on the ISS ever since, where their ship has remained docked.
Mark Felix – Agence France-Presse and Lucie Aubourg – Agence France-Presse in Houston and Washington respectively
Posted at 1:38 PM Updated at 2:29 PM
- United States
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 Boeing's Starliner spacecraft will not return to Earth until February with competitor SpaceX, NASA announced on Saturday.
The serial difficulties encountered on the Starliner led to this difficult decision not to use this spacecraft 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 Starlinerwould return without a crew,” NASA chief Bill Nelson said at a news conference after a decision-making committee meeting Saturday.
He called the decision a safety precaution, but said he still counted on the SpaceX-Boeing duo to fly astronauts to space, saying he was “100 percent” confident that Boeing would again launch Starliner with a crew.
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams launched in early June aboard Starliner, and have been on the ISS, where their spacecraft remains docked, ever since.
Radical solution
It was originally 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: bringing back its passengers, who have already spent two and a half months in the flying laboratory, with a regular SpaceX mission in February.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000For weeks, the 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 won't be able to generate the thrust needed to break away from orbit and begin its descent back to Earth.
Attempting a return with these malfunctions “was simply too risky for the crew,” said NASA official Steve Stich. Starliner will therefore leave the ISS for a return to Earth, without its crew, “in early September.”
A regular SpaceX mission, called Crew-9, is scheduled to launch in late September, carrying just two astronauts instead of four. It is to remain docked to the ISS until its scheduled return to Earth in February. And would then bring back the two Boeing castaways in addition to the two Crew-9 astronauts.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, stuck in orbit for many more months, “fully support the agency's decision and are ready to continue their mission aboard the ISS,” said Norm Knight, a NASA official, at the press conference.
Additional analyses
Boeing still assured at the beginning of the month that it was “confident” in the ability of Starliner“to return safely with the crew.” But NASA, which has been extremely cautious since the deadly accidents of the space shuttles Challenger and Columbia, persisted in demanding additional analyses, ultimately arriving at a “technical disagreement” with Boeing, Steve Stich modestly declared.
“Trust must be reciprocal,” Bill Nelson nevertheless warned.
This decision, unanimous on the NASA side, further tarnishes the image of Boeing, which is also in turmoil after a series of malfunctions on its planes.
In a press release, the manufacturer said it was “focusing, above all, on the safety of the crew and of the ship”.
Ten years ago, NASA ordered a new spacecraft from Boeing and SpaceX each to transport its astronauts to the ISS. With two vehicles, it wants to not be 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 crewed flight of Starliner, carried out years late due to setbacks during its development, was to be the last test before starting its regular operations.