Astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore were supposed to be back on Earth on June 14. The duo – first to travel to outer space in Boeing’s Starliner capsule – have been ‘stranded’ at the International Space Station (ISS) for nearly a month but remain confident they will return to their friends and families soon in the same capsule.
The veteran astronauts, who had over 500 days of spaceflight experience and four voyages in between them when they left Earth on June 5, have now clocked over 1,700 hours of gravity-free existence in this trip as NASA and Boeing are trying to fix an array of thruster issues that have kept them in space.
LIVE from the @Space_Station: @NASA_Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams discuss their @BoeingSpace #Starliner Crew Flight Test mission. https://t.co/Tsp7CjfjU7
— NASA (@NASA) July 10, 2024
In a media interaction on Wednesday, Williams and Wilmore said they expect to return once thruster testing, which is being conducted on Earth by NASA and Boeing, is complete. That includes firing identical thrusters at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico to get insight into what might be plaguing the thrusters in space.
Williams, 58, said: “I have a real good feeling in my heart that this spacecraft will bring us home, no problem.”
“That mantra you’ve heard, failure is not an option, that’s why we are staying here now,” 61-year-old Wilmore added. “We trust that the tests we’re doing are the ones we need to do to get the right answers, to give us the data that we need to come back.”
During the #Starliner crew's live update from @Space_Station, Commander Butch Wilmore brought the focus back to day one.
— Boeing Space (@BoeingSpace) July 10, 2024
Learn more about their Crew Flight Test launch and manual flying experiences: https://t.co/WE4YjPjsHm pic.twitter.com/wstVuA0eA1
Helium leaks and thruster failures had delayed the launch of Starliner, and the latest setback is yet another headache for the American company, which is besieged by issues with its airliners. Earlier this week, the company said it would plead guilty to defrauding the US government in the fatal crash of two 737 Max aircrafts, followed by a panel coming off mid-flight on an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 flight in January this year.
Starliner’s ISS trip issues
During the trip to ISS, five maneuvering thrusters of Starliner went dead and there were five helium leaks. A propellant valve also failed to close properly.
Four of the five faulty thrusters have since been reactivated and the officials have said that there is enough helium in the capsule for the trip home.
Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial crew programme director, said there was no targetted date for the return of the Starliner crew, although the capsule is approved for a 45-day docking at ISS and a maximum of 90 days using back-up systems.
The goal is to get them back before SpaceX delivers a fresh crew in mid-August, but that schedule could change.
Boeing believes the thrusters are not damaged and Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager of Commercial Crew Program, said Starliner and its crew could return right now if there is any emergency, adding “we want to fill in the blanks and run this test to assure ourselves of that.”
In 2014, NASA offered billion-dollar contracts to Boeing and SpaceX capsules for astronaut flights to and from the space station, While SpaceX’s first flight with astronauts was in 2020. Boeing’s first crew flight was repeatedly delayed because of software and other issues.
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