Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft has successfully completed its return journey to Earth, but the astronauts it was supposed to be carrying remain behind on the International Space Station.
The spacecraft, which operated autonomously after undocking from the ISS, encountered significant technical issues. Initially launched with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on board, the Starliner experienced several problems, including helium leaks and malfunctioning thrusters, which made it too risky for the astronauts’ return.
Instead, Wilmore and Williams will return in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, with their departure now scheduled for February. This change extends their stay on the ISS from the planned eight days to eight months.
The Starliner’s journey back lasted six hours, concluding with a parachute-assisted landing at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico at 23:01 local time (05:01 GMT) on Saturday. While NASA celebrated the successful landing, there was regret that the mission did not go as planned.
NASA’s commercial crew program manager, Steve Stich, praised the astronauts for their dedication and noted that despite the extended stay, they remain in good spirits and stay in regular touch with their families. The test flight, which launched from Cape Canaveral on June 5, was the first with astronauts onboard and faced numerous technical challenges that ultimately led to the decision to keep the crew on the ISS.
In a news briefing following the landing, Steve Stich said: “From a human perspective, all of us feel happy about the successful landing, but then there’s a piece of us – all of us – that wish it would have been the way we had planned it.
“We had planned to have the mission land with Butch and Suni on board.”
The briefing panel consisted only of Nasa officials. Missing, were two Boeing representatives who were supposed to be present.
When quizzed on the absence, Nasa official Joel Montalbano said Boeing decided to “defer to Nasa” to represent the mission.
Instead, Boeing released a statement “to recognize the work the Starliner teams did to ensure a successful and safe undocking, deorbit, re-entry and landing”.
It said Boeing will “review the data and determine the next steps” forward for the programme.
Mr Stich previouslyadmitted there was “tension in the room” between Boeing and Nasa while the decision not to bring the astronauts home on Starliner was being made, with Boeing arguing that their spacecraft could safely return with the pair on board.
“The Nasa team, due to the uncertainty and the modelling, could not get comfortable with that,” he said.
The plan to use rival company SpaceX has brought with it a significant delay to the astronauts’ return.
The extra time is to allow SpaceX to launch its next vehicle, with lift off scheduled for the end of September.
It was supposed to have four astronauts on board, but instead it will travel with two. This leaves room for Butch and Suni to join them in the vehicle to return to Earth at the end of its planned stay next February.
Dana Weigel, manager of the International Space Station, said that the astronauts were adapting well to their extended mission. Both have previously completed two long-duration stays in space.
She said the pair were undertaking the exercise programmes needed to stay healthy in the weightless environment.
And she added that they now had all of the gear they needed for their unplanned eight-month stay.
“When we first sent them up, they were borrowing a lot of our generic clothing that we have on board, and we have now switched some of those things out,” she said.
She explained that a resupply mission in July had delivered “specific crew preference items” that the pair had requested.
“So they actually have all of the standard e
xpedition gear at this point that any other crew member would be able to select. And we’ve got another cargo vehicle coming up, so we’ll send up anything else that they need for the back-end half of their mission on that flight.”
The issues with Starliner have no doubt been a blow to Boeing, which is suffering from financial losses as it struggles to repair its reputation following recent in-flight incidents and two fatal accidents five years ago.
After so many problems, a trouble-free landing will be a welcome outcome for the company – and for Nasa.
”We’ll go through a couple months of post-flight analysis,” said Steve Stich.
“There are teams starting to look at what we do to get the vehicle fully certified in the future.”
The US space agency has emphasised its commitment to Boeing’s spacecraft – having two American companies to take astronauts to space has been a key goal for Nasa for some time.
When their space shuttle fleet was retired in 2011, the US spent a decade relying solely on Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft to transport its crew and cargo – a situation Nasa admitted was far from ideal.
So in 2014, Boeing and SpaceX were awarded contracts to provide commercial space flights for Nasa astronauts – Boeing’s was worth $4.2bn (£3.2bn) while SpaceX received $2.6bn (£2bn).
So far SpaceX has sent nine crewed flights to space for Nasa, as well as some commercial missions, but this was Boeing’s first attempt at a crewed mission.
Boeing’s Starliner had already been delayed for several years because of setbacks in the spacecraft’s development and two previous uncrewed flights in 2019 and 2022 also suffered technical problems.
But NASA administrator Bill Nelson says he is 100% certain it would fly with a crew onboard again.
SOURCE: BBC
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