In a surprising turn of events, NASA has announced that astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, currently on board the International Space Station, may not return to Earth on the Boeing Starliner spacecraft as initially planned. Due to ongoing concerns about the Starliner's propulsion issues and helium leaks, NASA is now considering alternative options, including using a SpaceX Crew Dragon to bring the astronauts home.
Image Credit: NASA
The Starliner has been in space for 63 days, seven weeks longer than expected, and NASA has yet to set a clear return date. The agency has until mid-August to make a final decision, but officials are increasingly uncertain about the safety of the Starliner for crewed return.
During today’s teleconference, NASA Officials said they had several return scenarios they are considering if Starliner is deemed unsafe to bring Williams and Wilmore home.
One option is to launch a planned SpaceX Crew Dragon mission, Crew-9, with two astronauts on board instead of four. That would leave two seats empty for Williams and Wilmore to occupy on the Crew-9 flight home, but that would also make the astronauts part of the overall Crew-9 rotation on the International Space Station. That means Williams and Wilmore would remain on the station for an additional six months — the length of a routine mission to the ISS — pushing their return to at least February 2025. . However, the Crew-9 contingency plan has not been formally enabled yet.
Another contingency plan allows for three crew members to occupy the Crew-8 cargo pallet if the Starliner needs to undock autonomously before the arrival of Crew-9, leaving Wilmore and Williams without access to their spacecraft as a Safe Haven.
NASA officials refused to specify which vehicle they are leaning towards for Wilmore and Williams' return, citing that the situation could change drastically over time. The agency may certify Starliner for operational crewed missions without bringing the astronauts back onboard, pending data reviews of the thruster and helium issues.
The ground testing that mission teams carried out in New Mexico as they worked to understand the problems led to surprising results, said Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, on Wednesday.
The space agency had previously said it found excess heat around some of the Starliner thrusters was causing teflon seals to bulge, restricting the flow of propellant and triggering the thruster issues. NASA officials “got more and more uncomfortable with the uncertainty around the thrusters,” Stich said.
The Starliner software remains the same for crewed or uncrewed missions, but a specific set of mission parameters, known as Mission Data Loads, needs to be updated.
Additionally, NASA revealed that a July SpaceX Task Order was issued for a contingency involving Tracy Caldwell Dyson returning on Dragon instead of Soyuz MS-25. The Crew-9 Falcon Booster will now fly on a Starlink mission before Crew-9 due to a one-month delay.
By Azhar
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