Current:Home > reviewsNASA decides to keep 2 astronauts in space until February, nixes return on troubled Boeing capsule -Wealth Evolution Experts
NASA decides to keep 2 astronauts in space until February, nixes return on troubled Boeing capsule
View
Date:2025-04-11 23:16:08
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA decided Saturday it’s too risky to bring two astronauts back to Earth in Boeing’s troubled new capsule, and they’ll have to wait until next year for a ride home with SpaceX. What should have been a weeklong test flight for the pair will now last more than eight months.
The seasoned pilots have been stuck at the International Space Station since the beginning of June. A cascade of vexing thruster failures and helium leaks in the new capsule marred their trip to the space station, and they ended up in a holding pattern as engineers conducted tests and debated what to do about the trip back.
After almost three months, the decision finally came down from NASA’s highest ranks on Saturday. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will come back in a SpaceX spacecraft in February. Their empty Starliner capsule will undock in early September and attempt to return on autopilot.
As Starliner’s test pilots, the pair should have overseen this critical last leg of the journey, with touchdown in the U.S. desert.
“A test flight by nature is neither safe nor routine,” said NASA Administration Bill Nelson. “And so the decision ... is a commitment to safety.”
“This has not been an easy decision, but it is absolutely the right one,” added NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free.
It was a blow to Boeing, adding to the safety concerns plaguing the company on its airplane side. Boeing had counted on Starliner’s first crew trip to revive the troubled program after years of delays and ballooning costs. The company had insisted Starliner was safe based on all the recent thruster tests both in space and on the ground.
Boeing did not participate in Saturday’s news conference by NASA but released a statement: “Boeing continues to focus, first and foremost, on the safety of the crew and spacecraft. We are executing the mission as determined by NASA, and we are preparing the spacecraft for a safe and successful uncrewed return.”
Retired Navy captains with previous long-duration spaceflight experience, Wilmore, 61, and Williams, 58, anticipated surprises when they accepted the shakedown cruise of a new spacecraft, although not quite to this extent.
Before their June 5 launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, they said their families bought into the uncertainty and stress of their professional careers decades ago. During their lone orbital news conference last month, they said they had trust in the thruster testing being conducted. They had no complaints, they added, and enjoyed pitching in with space station work.
Wilmore’s wife, Deanna, was equally stoic in an interview earlier this month with WVLT-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee, their home state. She was already bracing for a delay until next February: “You just sort of have to roll with it.”
There were few options.
The SpaceX capsule currently parked at the space station is reserved for the four residents who have been there since March. They will return in late September, their stay extended a month by the Starliner dilemma. NASA said it would be unsafe to squeeze two more into the capsule, except in an emergency.
The docked Russian Soyuz capsule is even tighter, capable of flying only three — two of them Russians wrapping up a yearlong stint.
So Wilmore and Williams will wait for SpaceX’s next taxi flight. It’s due to launch in late September with two astronauts instead of the usual four for a routine six-month stay. NASA yanked two to make room for Wilmore and Williams on the return flight in late February.
NASA said no serious consideration was given to asking SpaceX for a quick stand-alone rescue. Last year, the Russian Space Agency had to rush up a replacement Soyuz capsule for three men whose original craft was damaged by space junk. The switch pushed their mission beyond a year, a U.S. space endurance record still held by Frank Rubio.
Starliner’s woes began long before its latest flight.
Bad software fouled the first test flight without a crew in 2019, prompting a do-over in 2022. Then parachute and other issues cropped up, including a helium leak in the capsule’s propellant system that nixed a launch attempt in May. The leak eventually was deemed to be isolated and small enough to pose no concern. But more leaks sprouted following liftoff, and five thrusters also failed.
All but one of those small thrusters restarted in flight. But engineers remain perplexed as to why some thruster seals appear to swell, obstructing the propellant lines, then revert to their normal size.
These 28 thrusters are vital. Besides needed for space station rendezvous, they keep the capsule pointed in the right direction at flight’s end as bigger engines steer the craft out of orbit. Coming in crooked could result in catastrophe.
With the Columbia disaster still fresh in many minds — the shuttle broke apart during reentry in 2003, killing all seven aboard — NASA embraced open debate over Starliner’s return capability. Dissenting views were stifled during Columbia’s doomed flight, just as they were during Challenger’s in 1986.
Despite Saturday’s decision, NASA isn’t giving up on Boeing.
NASA went into its commercial crew program a decade ago wanting two competing U.S. companies ferrying astronauts in the post-shuttle era. Boeing won the bigger contract: more than $4 billion, compared with SpaceX’s $2.6 billion.
With station supply runs already under its belt, SpaceX aced its first of now nine astronaut flights in 2020, while Boeing got bogged down in design flaws that set the company back more than $1 billion. NASA officials still hold out hope that Starliner’s problems can be corrected in time for another crew flight in another year or so.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
veryGood! (89391)
Related
- Nearly 400 USAID contract employees laid off in wake of Trump's 'stop work' order
- Texas Activists Sit-In at DOT in Washington Over Offshore Oil Export Plans
- Q&A: Eliza Griswold Reflects on the Lessons of ‘Amity and Prosperity,’ Her Deep Dive Into Fracking in Southwest Pennsylvania
- Study: Pennsylvania Children Who Live Near Fracking Wells Have Higher Leukemia Risk
- What do we know about the mysterious drones reported flying over New Jersey?
- Daniel Radcliffe Shares Rare Insight Into His Magical New Chapter as a Dad
- The Summer I Turned Pretty Cast Reveals Whether They're Team Conrad or Team Jeremiah
- Inside Clean Energy: Recycling Solar Panels Is a Big Challenge, but Here’s Some Recent Progress
- Tom Holland's New Venture Revealed
- The latest workers calling for a better quality of life: airline pilots
Ranking
- Juan Soto to be introduced by Mets at Citi Field after striking record $765 million, 15
- The latest workers calling for a better quality of life: airline pilots
- Every Hour, This Gas Storage Station Sends Half a Ton of Methane Into the Atmosphere
- Household debt, Home Depot sales and Montana's TikTok ban
- North Carolina trustees approve Bill Belichick’s deal ahead of introductory news conference
- Khloe Kardashian Labels Kanye West a Car Crash in Slow Motion After His Antisemitic Comments
- Kate Spade 24-Hour Flash Deal: Get This $400 Satchel Bag for Just $89
- Ford reverses course and decides to keep AM radio on its vehicles
Recommendation
Mets have visions of grandeur, and a dynasty, with Juan Soto as major catalyst
Frustration Simmers Around the Edges of COP27, and May Boil Over Far From the Summit
Selling Sunset's Amanza Smith Finally Returns Home After Battle With Blood Infection in Hospital
It’s Happened Before: Paleoclimate Study Shows Warming Oceans Could Lead to a Spike in Seabed Methane Emissions
Woman dies after Singapore family of 3 gets into accident in Taiwan
A lot of offices are still empty — and it's becoming a major risk for the economy
Q&A: Eliza Griswold Reflects on the Lessons of ‘Amity and Prosperity,’ Her Deep Dive Into Fracking in Southwest Pennsylvania
A Collision of Economics and History: In Pennsylvania, the Debate Over Climate is a Bitter One