With the retirement of the Space Shuttle after 30 years in 2011, NASA wrote a new chapter in its illustrious history of space exploration.
The space agency relied on Russia to transport U.S. cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), with a round-trip cost of about $90 million per astronaut.
Under former President Obama’s administration, NASA commissioned private U.S. companies to develop spacecraft that would reduce the agency’s reliance on geopolitical adversaries.
of Boeing Elon Musk-funded SpaceX won the contract in a public-private space exploration partnership, but both companies experienced several starts and stops during development.
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“The aurora streams beneath the Boeing Starliner spacecraft docked to the Harmony module’s forward port as the International Space Station rises 266 miles above the Indian Ocean, southwest of Australia,” according to NASA. (NASA/Matt Dominik)
This delayed the first launch scheduled for 2018, but SpaceX has now fixed that issue.
SpaceX’s Dragon crew launched two astronauts to the ISS in 2020 and successfully returned them without any issues.
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Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft made its first crewed launch on June 5, but a series of problems in space delayed the astronauts’ return.
Starliner astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore will remain on the ISS for the time being while engineers fix helium leaks and thruster issues before returning to Earth.
It was the latest hiccup in years of starts and stops in the development phase of SpaceX and Boeing’s spacecraft.
A photo of the International Space Station over the northeast coast of the United States. (NASA)
Here are six facts you need to know to stay up to date.
1. SpaceX and Boeing spacecraft were developed under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program after the retirement of the Space Shuttle.
2. In September 2014, NASA awarded contracts worth $4.2 billion and $2.6 billion to Boeing and SpaceX, respectively, after a lengthy, public competition.
The public-private partnership is expected to reduce the cost per seat from $90.3 million paid to Russia to $69.9 million paid to the U.S. company. NASA report.
Boeing and SpaceX rockets lined up (NASA 2019 Audit)
3. By 2024, SpaceX and Boeing plan to provide access to the ISS for at least 48 astronauts, according to the company. 2019 NASA Audit.
That hope didn’t materialize, a 2019 audit found, because the companies faced “significant safety and technical challenges related to parachutes, propulsion and launch abort systems.”
4. SpaceX successfully launched and returned its first manned spacecraft in May 2020, and has since carried out numerous successful missions.
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“Space is extremely hard,” expert Makenna Young said in an interview with Fox News Digital. “SpaceX is truly an anomaly and has, in my opinion, solved it with great success.”
Young is a research fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Air and Space Security Project.
SpaceX’s first manned launch to the International Space Station in 2020. (NASA)
5. Boeing’s manned mission has been postponed several times due to technical glitches that were not fixed during testing in December 2019. In 2022, the Starliner drone reached the ISS, but in 2023 further problems with the parachutes were discovered.
This resulted in the manned mission being postponed again.
6. Boeing’s Starliner successfully launched the first crewed spacecraft to the ISS on June 5, but a series of problems plagued the spacecraft, delaying the astronauts’ return.
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The propulsion system was leaking helium and engineers have been working for the past three weeks to repair the faulty thruster.
Boeing told Fox News Digital in an email on Thursday that all helium leaks have been “stabilized and will not affect the return mission,” and that four of the five thrusters that were shut down are “operating normally.”
Starliner can remain docked at the ISS for 45 days, and a new date for returning astronauts to Earth has not yet been set.
NASA’s Expedition 71 crew with Starliner crew flight test members Suni Williams (first row from left) and Butch Wilmore (first row from right). (NASA)
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The predicament shows the need for at least two credible options for getting to and from the ISS, Young said.
“It’s also important to emphasize that these astronauts will not be left behind because NASA has another reliable, proven system,” Young said.
“That’s why NASA always has redundancies in place, so if something goes wrong with one program, the other programs can easily take over.”
