NASA officials recently acknowledged there had been internal “disagreements” about the reliability of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft to safely return two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station.
Ars Technical Report In an unprecedented move, NASA has publicly discussed the agency’s ongoing debate over the safety of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. Primary concerns concern the reliability of the spacecraft’s 28 reaction control system thrusters, which are essential for precisely steering and pointing the spacecraft. The thrusters, provided by Aerojet Rocketdyne, have come under scrutiny after five failed during Starliner’s ascent to the space station. Starliner left two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station (ISS), and there is still no plan to return them safely.
Ken Bowersox, NASA’s human spaceflight operations manager, called the internal debate “healthy,” but acknowledged that disagreements can sometimes be “painful.” NASA is working on various contingency plans, including a possible rescue mission using SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. This potential rescue mission would launch the Crew-9 mission with just two astronauts instead of four, allowing stranded astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to join the space station’s “augmented crew” and return to Earth in February 2025.
The decision to return astronauts aboard Starliner depends on whether NASA engineers can accept the uncertainties of the thruster’s performance. If selected, the return flight would take place in late August or early September. However, if the concerns remain unresolved, NASA may opt for a SpaceX rescue mission. A final decision is expected by mid-August.
To better understand the thruster issue, Boeing and NASA conducted ground and space-based tests to replicate the failure and identify the root cause. Tests demonstrated a similar failure, but engineers have yet to determine the exact cause of the expansion of a Teflon seal in the oxidizer valve, which could have restricted the flow of nitrogen tetroxide propellant. Boeing engineers believe they know enough about the problem to prevent a failure during the return to Earth and insist on flying Starliner as is. However, a meeting of NASA’s leading engineers could not reach a consensus on whether the flight doctrine is sufficient to fly the crew safely.
Another concern is that Starliner’s onboard software packages will need to be reconfigured so that it can safely undock without a crew. This reconfiguration will require reverting to the software parameters that were in use two years ago, before crew operations were integrated. Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Manager, confirmed that testing this configuration change will take about four weeks.
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Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering free speech and online censorship.
