NASA says astronauts trapped in space will wait for a SpaceX craft instead of returning on a Boeing capsule

NASA announced on Saturday that it will ask SpaceX to retrieve two astronauts who have been stranded on the International Space Station since early June due to multiple issues with their Boeing spacecraft during takeoff.

The decision made by astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to take a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule instead of the Boeing Starliner spacecraft they flew into orbit settles months of conjecture and stress within the space agency regarding the safe return of the two crew members. The intended duration of the expedition was eight days.

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At a press conference on Saturday, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson stated, “Even in its safest and most routine configurations, spaceflight remains perilous, and a test mission is by definition neither routine nor safe. Thus, a dedication to safety led to the decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and return the Boeing Starliner to Earth without a crew.”

Boeing’s space ambitions have suffered a significant blow as a result of the Starliner debacle, which has compounded years of effort to get the capsule off the ground and stay competitive with competitor company SpaceX. The Starliner program was years behind schedule and almost $1.5 billion over budget before Wilmore and Williams took office in June.

Leading NASA officials, including Nelson, convened on Saturday at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, to carry out an official evaluation predicated on the outcomes of experiments conducted both on the ground and in orbit.

Although the government has finally decided on a plan to return the astronauts, the journey will take some time. Rather, Wilmore and Williams will spend an additional six months or so onboard the space station before returning home in February.

NASA said that it will make two seats available for the upcoming Crew-9 SpaceX flight, which will transport a fresh crew rotation of the space station to the orbiting outpost. At the end of Crew-9 in February, Wilmore and Williams will be allowed to return in the vacant seats because they are carrying two astronauts less than the four that were originally scheduled to be transported.

As of right now, the Crew-9 mission is expected to take out from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on September 24.

Meanwhile, NASA reports that the troubled Starliner capsule will return to Earth unmanned, most likely in early September.

Boeing released the following statement after the announcement: “We remain committed to putting the safety of the crew and spacecraft first and foremost.” In addition to carrying out the mission as directed by NASA, we are getting the spacecraft ready for a successful and safe unmanned return.

Although Boeing personnel expressed confidence in their ship, SpaceX was chosen by all NASA officials, according to Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

According to Stich, “the thrusters’ prediction was just too uncertain.” “If we had a model, if we had a method to precisely forecast what the thrusters would do during the undock, during the de-orbit burn, and during the separation sequence, I believe we would have done things differently.”

The public messaging from Boeing was in sharp contrast to NASA’s lack of clarity in previous weeks. According to the aerospace corporation, tests conducted both on Earth and in orbit showed that returning astronauts home in the Starliner capsule was safe.

Officials from Boeing have not attended NASA-hosted news conferences to talk about the Starliner project during the last month. On its website, Boeing was providing status updates for the flight, but since August 2, no new mission updates have been issued. Boeing stated it “has faith that the Starliner spaceship will return safely with its crew” in its statement earlier this month.

On June 6, Wilmore and Williams reached the space station. Five of Starliner’s thrusters failed as they approached the orbiting station, delaying the docking procedure for about an hour. Mission managers also discovered that the capsule’s propulsion system was leaking helium. This problem was known before the spacecraft took off, but it seemed to get worse while in orbit.

Using a test engine designed for upcoming Starliner flights, engineers from Boeing and NASA studied the issues for weeks. Two “hot fire tests” were also carried out in orbit by mission management, wherein the capsule’s engines were fired in quick bursts while it was parked at the space station.

On June 5, Wilmore and Williams embarked on the inaugural crewed voyage of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, destined for the International Space Station. The trip, which was scheduled to last little longer than a week, was an important test flight for Boeing and the final significant step before NASA could certify the Starliner spacecraft to regularly transport men to and from the space station.

NASA’s certification procedure is currently under wraps, and it is unclear how the space agency would assess Starliner’s performance during the crewed test flight.

Meanwhile, since 2020, SpaceX has been transporting NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

As part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which was launched in 2011 to assist private businesses in developing new spacecraft to carry passengers to low-Earth orbit once the agency’s space shuttles are retired, both Boeing and SpaceX created their space capsules.

Associate Administrator Jim Free of NASA commended the teams at NASA and Boeing, stating that the work completed in the last few months will guide future missions.

He declared, “We are a learning organization.” “We will learn from this endeavor so that our crews, who are at the top of the pyramid on these missions, and their families know we’ve done that and we’ll always do our best.”

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