(News Nation) — With Boeing’s Starliner capsule remaining docked at the International Space Station, the company and NASA are facing an urgent new challenge. Return the capsule and crew.
After going through a number of pre-launch issues, Starliner finally lifted off from Cape Canaveral on June 5 to begin its first crewed test mission. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams The two are scheduled to stay on the ISS for approximately eight days before returning to Earth.
Continue Multiple helium leaks It was detected by the Starliner’s service module. Spacecraft thruster malfunction Since the first docking attempt, astronauts have been on the ISS for eight weeks.
Experts say He calls the crew “stranded.”“This is a bit of an exaggeration, but the reality is that NASA faces the prospect of needing to return them to Earth before the SpaceX mission scheduled for August 18 can go ahead.
The problem is parkingThe ISS has six docking stations, four on the Russian side and two on the US side. Currently, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endeavour uses one dock, and Starliner uses the other. Endeavour isn’t scheduled to return to Earth until the fall.
While a solution might seem like renting space from Russia, incompatible technology makes that impossible. Instead, one of the two currently docked vehicles will have to depart before the planned Crew Dragon Freedom mission can go ahead.
NASA and Boeing Continued to maintain The crew will return to Earth aboard the Starliner and continue testing to ensure the thrusters have enough power to perform the maneuvers necessary to get back to Earth. One complicating factor is that the service module will burn up on re-entry, so engineers need to gather as much data as they can before Starliner leaves the ISS.
But planetside activity has raised suspicions that NASA may return Williams and Wilmore aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule, which would be a further blow to Boeing. Already a bad year.
Ars Technical According to sources There was a more than 50% chance that the crew would return aboard a SpaceX spacecraft, but it was not clear whether that would be Endeavour or another spacecraft that would fly to the ISS to pick up the astronauts.
In the meantime, Wilmore and Williams are helping the ISS crew with their missions, and NASA plans to announce more details about their return in the coming weeks.
