Imagine having to prepare for a mission supposed to last just a little over a week and then learning you might be staying for months. This is the reality of NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams, now on board the International Space Station. They blasted off on June 5 from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station aboard Boeing’s Starliner and were supposed to return home to Earth on June 14. A run of technical issues has stretched out their mission indefinitely.
They had intended to be there only for a short duration to attempt and try out the Starliner spacecraft, but helium leaks coupled with the thruster issues were only added to the growing pile of mechanical problems that were prolonging the astronauts’ stay in space longer than expected. NASA has also tried to reassure everyone that Wilmore and Williams are safe and that the supplies in the space station are capable of supporting them. As NASA commercial crew program manager Steve Stich said, “I want to be clear that Butch and Suni are not stuck in space. Our intention again is to continue to bring them home on Starliner and get them home at the proper time.”.
Because their stay was unexpectedly lengthened, the astronauts are able to participate in daily operations aboard the ISS and are lending a hand to help conduct ongoing experiments, all the way down to work orders. NASA said they had already logged roughly half of all hands-on research time carried out aboard the space station, leaving their fellow crew members free to prepare for other missions—like the anticipated departure of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft.
In a better understanding of the problems with the thrusters, NASA and Boeing teams are now conducting ground tests at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico. The result would stand in for conditions that Starliner may face once again during the docking phase, to which it will eventually return to Earth. “We really want to understand the thruster and how we use it in flight,” said Dan Niedermaier, a lead Boeing engineer for the testing of the thrusters. “We’re going to learn a lot from these thruster firings that will be important and valuable for the rest of the Crew Flight Test and beyond.”
Starliner is now on a long way to come to where it is lately. Officials said its test flight was delayed from May 6 because of some problem with an oxygen valve. Yet another launch attempt on May 25 was scrubbed off due to a minute helium leak in the service module. Even after its June 6 successful docking, there were numerous helium leaks plaguing the spacecraft, which kept the return mission on tenterhooks. However, NASA and Boeing assured enough helium was in storage for the ride back.
Despite the blasts from the past, there is no immediate rush to bring the astronauts back. “We got a little bit of the luxury of time,” said Ken Bowersox, an associate administrator at NASA. The batteries on Starliner, too, had above 45-day ratings and have been holding up fine. They are now apparently good to last 45 days more, if it comes to that. A standard Starliner mission to the space station would be six months. In that respect, everything to this point had been routine in the flight.
The slip also points out the intense pressure Boeing is under from a competitor, SpaceX. The two companies were awarded contracts worth several billion dollars each in 2014 to build spacecraft to carry crews to the International Space Station. While SpaceX’s Crew Dragon has already decidedly ferried its third crew since 2020, Boeing has just managed two remote flights—none of which was even able to reach orbit. That has even led to speculation that Boeing will ax the Starliner program if certification doesn’t come soon. Meanwhile, Boeing will put Starliner to work accommodating a future space station known as Orbital Reef, being built by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.
Against such a backdrop of space missions, Boeing recently announced an $8.3 billion merger with a key supplier, Spirit AeroSystems. “We believe this deal is in the best interest of the flying public, our airline customers, the employees of Spirit and Boeing, our shareholders, and the country more broadly,” said Boeing President and CEO Dave Calhoun. Such a merger is bound to have Boeing integrate its production systems for better safety and quality management.
Much though this is all that can be upgraded now, obviously, the subject of space travel is complex, awkward, and heavily uncertain. Problems plaguing Starliner underline not just the complexity but also human resilience and adaptability to the tireless work going on backstage. RIGHT NOW, Wilmore and Williams press on with their mission aboard the ISS, which has a very critical contribution in making space travel ever more safe and reliable for future explorers.
