Elon Musk’s SpaceX is reportedly working with NASA on a plan to bring astronauts home after eight weeks in orbit aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft.
“NASA is considering all options to return astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams as safely as possible from the International Space Station. No decisions have been made yet and NASA will continue to provide updates on plans,” said NASA spokesman Josh Finch. Said “We’re not sure if the crew will return aboard the Starliner or Dragon spacecraft,” Ars Technica said after being asked if the crew would return aboard the Starliner or Dragon spacecraft.
Notably, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams became the first humans to fly into orbit aboard the Boeing Starliner on June 5. NASA officials initially said the Starliner’s two-person crew could return to Earth on June 14, just eight days after reaching orbit.
Starliner has faced several problems, including helium leaks and thruster failures, but officials have downplayed these, calling them minor issues.
“These are actually very minor issues that we’re going to address,” said Mark Nappi, Boeing’s vice president and manager of commercial crew programs. “We’ll get them resolved before the next mission. I don’t see these as significant issues at all.”
As the days, weeks, and months passed, NASA and Boeing investigated the technical issue further, discovering that “the more immediate concern was the failure of a Multiple Response Control System thruster, essential for steering Starliner during its departure from the space station and preparing the critical engine burn for re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere,” Ars Technica reported.
Last week, NASA and Boeing reportedly sent the spacecraft’s thrusters into orbit to verify their performance.
NASA noted that the preliminary results of these tests have been encouraging, but did not comment on what would happen if it concluded that Starliner’s thrusters were not reliable enough to return to Earth.
“Our first option is to complete the mission,” Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial crew program manager, said last week. “There are many reasons to complete this mission and return Butch and Suni aboard Starliner.”
“As a spacecraft, Starliner was designed to have a crew in the cockpit,” Stich added.
As a result, it has been speculated that astronauts will return to Earth on the Dragon spacecraft rather than the Starliner.
One source told Ars Technica that there’s a better than 50/50 chance that the crew will return aboard Dragon, while another said the chances are significantly higher, but NASA has yet to make a final decision.
Meanwhile, NASA meetings this week have seen lively debate over whether to return astronauts on Starliner, with multiple groups arguing “against” the spacecraft as of Wednesday, two sources told Ars Technica.
Some engineers say Starliner might be able to return crews safely to Earth, but the fact that they’re skeptical means NASA should choose Dragon, which has launched safely 13 times and landed 12 times.
But if NASA decides to return astronauts on Dragon, “it could mean the end of the Starliner program,” Ars Technica noted.
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