NASA nears decision on what to do with Boeing’s troubled Starliner spacecraft
NASA nears decision on what to do with Boeing’s troubled Starliner spacecraft
Boeing won't start flying operational crew missions with Starliner until a year from now.
The astronauts who rode Boeing's Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station last month still don't know when they will return to Earth.
The problems are twofold. The spacecraft's reaction control thrusters overheated, and some of them shut off as Starliner approached the space station June 6. A separate, although perhaps related, problem involves helium leaks in the craft's propulsion system.
On Thursday, NASA and Boeing managers said they still plan to bring Wilmore and Williams home on the Starliner spacecraft. In the last few weeks, ground teams completed testing of a thruster on a test stand at White Sands, New Mexico. This weekend, Boeing and NASA plan to fire the spacecraft's thrusters in orbit to check their performance while docked at the space station.
The problems have led to speculation that NASA might decide to return Wilmore and Williams to Earth in a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. There's one Crew Dragon currently docked at the station, and another one is slated to launch with a fresh crew next month. Steve Stich, manager of NASA's commercial crew program, said the agency has looked at backup plans to bring the Starliner crew home on a SpaceX capsule, but the main focus is still to have the astronauts fly home aboard Starliner.
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Oh now it's troubled? What happened to "Everything is a-okay! You guys are making something out of nothing!"
It’s always been troubled. But it still is likely quite safe to return home in. Even the article admits there is only speculation about using a different vehicle to bring them home. No official word suggests that might be the case.
"Speculation" that isn't official, but SpaceX got a mini contract to look into it and Eric Berger reported on it. That's at least informed speculation.
only speculation about using a different vehicle to bring them home
2024 -- when disaster-recovery and contingency plans are so scarce they're seen as an admission. Am I right? What happened to Proper Planning and Preparation?!? :-D
I don't know man, I got haranged a couple times by space fans for Boeing space ship cracks. They were exceedingly defensive that nothing was wrong.
Meh, whatever.
wdym cracks?
Jokes
oh
They're just covering for all the possibilities. They don't want the astronauts to have "a bad day", so in case something does go wrong in testing, they can simply go with Plan B: Ride the Dragon.