NASA decided today to bring Starliner home, but without the astronauts. They are not prepared to venture human life on a vehicle that still has too many unresolved issues. The astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, therefore, remain on the International Space Station (ISS) in expectation for some eventual resolution of their plight.
In its statement on August 24, NASA said: “NASA and Boeing identified helium leaks and experienced issues with the spacecraft reaction control thrusters on June 6 as Starliner approached the space station. Since then, engineering teams have completed a significant amount of work, including reviewing a collection of data, conducting flight and ground testing, hosting independent reviews with agency propulsion experts, and developing various return contingency plans. The uncertainty and lack of expert concurrence does not meet the agency’s safety and performance requirements for human spaceflight, thus prompting NASA leadership to move the astronauts to the Crew-9 mission.”
With regard to the two stranded astronauts, the statement reported, “Wilmore and Williams will continue their work formally as part of the Expedition 71/72 crew through February 25. They will fly home aboard a Dragon spacecraft with two other crew members assigned to the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission. Starliner is expected to depart from the space station and make a safe, controlled autonomous re-entry and landing in early September.”
The agency tried to remain upbeat about the “glitches” praising the work accomplished on the ISS. For more than two decades, people have lived and worked continuously aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge and demonstrating new technologies, making research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. The station is a critical testbed for NASA to understand and overcome the challenges of long-duration spaceflight and to expand commercial opportunities in low-Earth orbit. As commercial companies focus on providing human space transportation services and destinations as part of a robust low-Earth orbit economy, NASA’s Artemis campaign is underway at the Moon where the agency is preparing for future human exploration of Mars, said NASA in its statement.
