Butch Wilmore took over as Commander Starliner Earlier this summer, he thanked the people who were preparing to blow up him and his buddy Suni Williams. space.
“Amazing. Well done, guys.” National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) “I’ll see you in two weeks, maybe longer,” the astronaut said before the ultimately aborted launch attempt.
The launch commentators were amused.
“Butch intends to remain up there longer,” Boeing engineer Jim May said, citing Wilmore’s radio transmissions. “He may even do a couple of additional manual flight demonstrations while he’s up there.”
A few days later, the two astronauts Launched to the International Space StationAnd those opening words reveal their state of mind before the flight: They knew their planned week in space might turn into more than that, but they also foreshadowed the grueling rest of the mission.
The long and troubled history of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft
The Boeing Starliner arrived at the International Space Station on June 6, 2024, carrying Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.
Credit: NASA
Wilmore and Williams have been suspended 250 miles above Earth for more than two months. The Starliner, Boeing’s new spacecraft they test-fly, encountered propulsion problems during the journey. Now the US space agency must decide whether to return them in the test capsule or to arrange a complicated flight aboard another spacecraft built and managed by Boeing’s competitor. SpaceXBoeing, meanwhile, is confident that Starliner can handle the mission.
SpaceX Crew Dragon It’s also not an ideal solution for NASA, as the change would have cascading effects on launch pads and flight schedules.
“We’re approaching the point where we need to make a decision in the last week of August or possibly sooner,” said Ken Bowersox, NASA’s associate administrator for space operations.
Aside from general concerns about Wilmore and Williams’ health — their bodies will be exposed to too much radiation in space, causing their bones to deteriorate — NASA faces a looming manifest deadline.
Starliner test pilots Butch Wilmore (left) and Suni Williams could stay in space for another six months if NASA decides to return them in a SpaceX capsule.
Credit: Joe Raedl/Getty Images
The US section of the space station has four ports, two for spacecraft and two for cargo ships. Currently, one SpaceX capsule and Starliner occupy both crew docks. There is no interoperability between US ships and the Russian ports, and the cargo space is not equipped for passenger aircraft, which means the parking lots are full.
NASA has already postponed Next Crew Rotation With a month to buy time to decide Starliner’s future course, SpaceX’s delayed capsule is scheduled to leave for the space station on September 24. Starliner needs to undock by then and accommodate the other SpaceX spacecraft, whether they’re piloted by a human or a robot.
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In addition to logistics on the space station, NASA also had to consider how the changes would affect operations on the ground. Crew 9 FlightFor example, NASA is scrambling to get approval to launch Crew 9 from an alternative launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Otherwise, Crew 9 will Europa Clipper,Robotics Science Mission, Jupiter’s Moons.
These adjustments mean that the September window for Starliner departures is now extremely short: if NASA chooses not to return the Starliner astronauts aboard the space station, they would remain on the space station until February 2025, turning their original eight-day stay into an eight-month stay.
If the Starliner crew returns on a SpaceX spacecraft, they won’t be able to return until February 2025.
Credit: NASA
“At some point we need to bring these people home and get the ISS crew numbers back to normal,” Bowersox said.
Astronauts are trained for unexpected changes to departure and arrival times, Long-term stay in space The two will be separated from their families for more than six months.
Even astronauts, who are sometimes considered superhuman, can succumb to the boredom of life away from Earth. NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, who recently spent 371 days aboard the space station because his return flight to Russia was canceled, Coolant leaksaid it had been a stressful ordeal.
“Psychological factors were a bigger factor than we expected.” He said.
Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, left, worked on deferred maintenance and repairs on the space station.
Credit: NASA
Wilmore and Williams have been busy since their arrival. In addition to running diagnostic tests aboard Starliner, they’ve been helping out in other ways at the orbital lab. The pair have taken on deferred maintenance tasks, like assembling a backup urine-processing device called a “Frankenpump,” and at times have seemed like honored space cleaners.
Having extra crew members to make up for shortfalls is an advantage for NASA, but it also has a drawback: More people in orbit means more mouths to feed and more carbon dioxide to remove from the air, so time on exercise machines has to be carefully managed to keep everyone healthy in the weightless environment.
Getting Starliner through the testing phase has been a relentless battle for Boeing, but company representatives Not always forthright Why has the program suffered so many setbacks? The problems have been going on for a decade.
After the Space Shuttle was retired in 2011, NASA relied on Russian rockets to ferry all of its space shuttles to the space station, at a cost to the U.S. of tens of millions of dollars per launch. Some saw this as a national embarrassment.
There are currently nine people aboard the International Space Station, including Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.
Credit: NASA
NASA asked Boeing and SpaceX in 2014 to build commercial spacecraft to ferry astronauts to the station. SpaceX’s capsule began operations four years ago, but Boeing’s Starliner has yet to be certified for scheduled flights. NASA didn’t intend to put all its eggs in space. Elon Muskbasket, and said the Starliners remain important as backups.
in Securities and Exchange Commission filingsBoeing said the Starliner problems caused a loss of $125 million last quarter and that it “may record additional losses in future periods.”
When asked which way Wilmore and Williams wanted to return to Earth, NASA chief astronaut Joe Acaba said it wasn’t up to them.
“This isn’t really a matter of preference,” he told reporters on Aug. 14. “They will wait for us to analyze the data and make a decision, and then, again, they will comply with our requests.”
