CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – JULY 29: In this NASA handout, A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with … [+]
Boeing’s leaky Starliner space capsule is poised to hang out at the International Space Station even longer, NASA told reporters Friday.
The troubled vehicle is one of two that the agency selected through its Commercial Crew program to ferry astronauts to space. While the other vehicle NASA selected, the SpaceX Crew Dragon, has already completed several missions transporting astronauts to the ISS and back, Starliner’s history has been full of false starts.
During the current mission, which was the first to see Starliner carrying humans, issues emerged with the vehicle thrusters and a helium leak. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were meant to stay at the ISS for just over a week before riding Starliner back home, but now appear slated to extend that stay beyond a fourth week, if not much longer.
“We’re still in the middle of a test mission,” Ken Bowersox, associate administrator at NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate told reporters on a call Friday, explaining that the team is waiting for conditions to be right to bring Starliner home.
“I want to make it very clear that Butch and Suni are not stranded in space,” added Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew program manager. “We’re not in any rush to come home.”
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore (R) and Suni Williams, wearing Boeing spacesuits, depart the Neil A. … [+]
Boeing’s Mark Nappi said there are no new issues or problems to report with Starliner.
“We’ve gotten a real good test flight that’s been accomplished so far,” he said. “We can return with Starliner at any time.”
Nappi said that Boeing currently understand the issues with the vehicle well enough to deal with them and still have a safe return, but not well enough yet to fix them permanently.
Stich noted that the two astronauts can use Starliner as their “lifeboat” vehicle in the case of an emergency, a use that was put into practice earlier this week when orbital debris from a dead Russian satellite was spotted. The debris was at a lower altitude than the ISS, and the astronauts returned to normal duties after spending about an hour in their vehicles out of an abundance of caution.
Previously there was discussion that Starliner was limited to a 45 day visit at the ISS, but Stich said this limitation was linked to the vehicle’s batteries, which have been performing well and getting successfully recharged while in orbit. He said the vehicle was originally designed for a 210-day mission and that he expects the limit to be extended beyond 45 days.
NASA and Boeing are continuing an extensive battery of tests, both on the ISS and at facilities on the ground.
The Commercial Crew program was launched as NASA looked for a replacement for the Space Shuttle, which flew for the last time in 2011. For a period before Crew Dragon came online, the agency was put in the awkward position of relying on Russian Soyuz launches to transport American astronauts, even as geopolitical tensions rose with Vladimir Putin’s incursions and eventual all-out invasion into Ukraine.
Dr. Thomas Hughes is a UK-based scientist and science communicator who makes complex topics accessible to readers. His articles explore breakthroughs in various scientific disciplines, from space exploration to cutting-edge research.
