Two astronauts are currently stuck on board the International Space Station more than 50 days after they were initially scheduled to fly back to Earth. Now, issues with the Boeing Starliner craft they used to reach the ISS mean that Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams may now be stranded in space until the new year.
Williams and Wilmore were initially scheduled to fly to the ISS, spend eight days there and then hop back down to Terra Firma. However, hydrogen leaks and other issues with the Boeing-built Starliner spacecraft mean they have been stuck their longer than expected. Much longer.
Now, NASA is concerned that the risk of further leaks onboard the Starliner craft is too high for it to put astronauts back inside for a return flight, according to reports from New Scientist. As such, it’s warning that the pair may now be stuck in space until February 2025 when a return trip can be planned. As New Scientist reports:
“When we started this mission, it was a test mission,” said Ken Bowersox at NASA during a 7 August press conference. “We knew that it potentially had a higher risk than a flight on a vehicle that has more experience.” Now, he says there are disagreements within NASA as to whether the risk of more leaks and thruster failure during a return flight is too high to put people back on board Starliner.
A major part of assessing that risk has been attempting to recreate the issues that Starliner has seen in space with tests on the ground, said NASA’s Steve Stich during the press conference. He said there has been some progress, but not yet enough to significantly lower the uncertainty in how Starliner will perform on its way back to Earth. “We can’t totally prove with certainty [that] what we’re seeing on orbit is exactly what we’re seeing on the ground,” said Stich.
NASA’s priority remains fixing Starliner and bringing the two astronauts home safely on the Boeing craft. However, this is NASA so it needs a backup and backups for that backup. As such, it’s plotting a plan B that involves SpaceX and the next Dragon mission to the ISS.
Instead of flying a Dragon capsule to the ISS with the sole purpose of bringing Williams and Wilmore home, NASA could instead attach the two astronauts to a mission that’s already planned for September, reports the BBC. If this option is taken, the pair will be stuck in space until February 2025 when that mission is due to return to Earth. As the BBC explains:
That flight to the space station will be made by a SpaceX Crew Dragon craft. The initial plan was for four crew members to be aboard, but two of the seats could be left empty if needed.
That plan would mean the astronauts would spend more than eight months – rather than eight days – aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
In this case, Starliner could be returned to Earth without a crew onboard. Once back on dry land, the craft could be analyzed and any issues can be further ironed out ahead of a future manned mission.
The issues with Starliner are just the latest production problems to have plagued U.S. aerospace company Boeing this year. The company has been hit with quality control problems on its production line after a door plug blew out a 737 Max mid-flight, and it’s faced questions over its flagship 787 Dreamliner plane. On top of that, the company face allegations of profit chasing that hit the Starliner program from the off.
