NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore (R) and Suni Williams, wearing Boeing spacesuits, depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at Kennedy Space Center for Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida to board the spacecraft Boeing CST-100 Starliner for crewed flight test launch, June 5, 2024.
Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo | Afp | Getty Images
With NASA astronauts docked at the International Space Station far longer than planned, the agency’s leadership on Wednesday identified possible alternatives to Boeing’s Starliner for returning the crew to Earth.
But Boeing’s spacecraft remains the primary choice for the returning crew, officials said.
Officials say the Starliner “Calypso” capsule may not return until the end of this month from its extended stay on the ISS, pending test results of a faulty propulsion system. Starliner is now at 36 days and counting as the agency and Boeing perform additional tests in New Mexico before clearing the spacecraft to return.
The mission is the first time the Starliner has carried humans, flying NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.
NASA Commercial Crew Director Steve Stich stressed during a news conference that the first “option today is to return Butch and Suni to the Starliner,” adding that “we see no reason” at this time to switch to the other the service’s transport option, which will be SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, to bring back the astronauts.
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Stich — while acknowledging that a SpaceX capsule could be part of contingency plans should the Starliner return empty from the ISS — noted that NASA has yet to “make a decision on whether we need to do something different.” .
“We’ve certainly dusted off some of these things to look at in relation to the Starliner, just to be prepared in case we need to use some of these items,” Stich said.
“[But] There was really no discussion about sending another Dragon to rescue the Starliner crew,” Stich later added.
SpaceX’s Dragon crew capsule “Endeavour” emerged from the International Space Station on May 2, 2024.
NASA
Boeing and NASA on July 3 began testing the spacecraft’s thruster technology back on the ground in White Sands, New Mexico, with the goal of replicating a problem that caused up to five of Calypso’s thrusters to shut down when the spacecraft maneuvered to dock with the ISS. . The ground tests are done to “make sure that with all these pulses and all the heat we put on it, it doesn’t cause any damage to the thruster,” Stich said.
Stich noted that a “late July” return for the Starliner is based “optimistically” on completion of testing. Boeing and NASA teams at White Sands are conducting inspections of the test thruster next week.
But “so far we haven’t been able to reproduce the temperatures we saw in flight,” Boeing’s Mark Nappi, vice president of the Starliner program, said during the press conference.
“What we’re trying to do with this test is fill in some gaps because … what we’re trying to do is understand if the promoters are performing [as expected], then we’ll be able to log out and just come back. If the thrusters were somehow damaged, then what would we do differently?’ Nappi said.
“We don’t think we have damaged thrusters, but again, we want to fill in the blanks and run this test to make sure,” Nappi added.
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is pictured docked to the International Space Station in orbit over the Mediterranean coast of Egypt on June 13, 2024.
NASA
Wilmore and Williams, speaking to the press from the ISS, both expressed confidence that they would return to the Starliner.
“We think the tests we’re doing are the ones we need to do to get the right answers to give us the data we need to come back,” Wilmore said.
Starliner was once seen as a competitor to SpaceX’s Dragon, which has made 12 crewed trips to the ISS in the past four years. However, various setbacks and delays have steadily put the Starliner on the back burner for NASA, with the agency planning to fly SpaceX and Boeing astronauts on alternating flights.
The Starliner crew flight test represents a final major step before NASA certifies Boeing to fly the crew on operational, six-month missions beginning in February.
