File video: NASA Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams gave a tour of the Boeing Starliner spacecraft two days after docking at the International Space Station.
HOUSTON — NASA is preparing to bring the empty Boeing Starliner spacecraft home on autopilot Friday, concluding the vehicle’s first test flight with astronauts plagued by problems that started before the spacecraft left Earth.
The Starliner arrived at the ISS in early June with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams as part of Boeing’s crew flight test to certify the spacecraft to fly future human missions. But when Starliner undocks on Friday at 6:04 p.m., the spacecraft will not carry any crew back to Earth.
After a series of problems with helium leaks and reaction control thrusters, Starliner will land in New Mexico after midnight on Saturday.
Williams and Wilmore launched from Florida in June on what was to be an 8-day mission, but due to the current situation with Starliner, they will spend nearly nine months in space. They will remain in orbit until their new ride home with SpaceX arrives.
A view of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft as seen from the SpaceX Crew Dragon docked at the space station with a view of aurora lights above Earth.
(Matthew Dominick/NASA)
Over the summer, NASA managers refuted claims that the veteran astronauts were “stranded in space.” NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich maintained this sentiment on Wednesday.
SOURCE OF ‘STRANGE’ SOUNDS FROM BOEING STARLINER IDENTIFIED
“They were never stuck or stranded; they always had a way to depart the space station,” Stich said.
Starliner leaving the astronauts in space led to a lot of behind-the-scenes problem-solving for teams at NASA, Boeing, and SpaceX. This required a new game plan for spacesuits, spacecraft configuration and kicking two astronauts off the upcoming Crew-9 launch.
NASA and Boeing have maintained that, despite the issues with Starliner, it would be safe to bring the astronauts back to Earth during an emergency. After Starliner undocks, the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft that brought the Crew-8 mission astronauts to the ISS will serve as their lifeboat in the event of an emergency.
The astronauts moved the cargo pallet on Dragon to make room for the Starliner’s astronauts if they needed to depart the ISS urgently. However, the Starliner spacesuits Williams and Wilmore wore on their journey up are incompatible with the SpaceX vehicle or the temporary configuration on the Crew-8 vehicle.
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore, left, and Suni Williams, wearing Boeing spacesuits, are seen as they prepare to depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building for Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to board the Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft for the Crew Flight Test launch, Wednesday, June 5, 2024, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
(NASA)
Wilmore and Williams will remain on the space station until February 2025, when they will return to Earth on SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft. They will be joined by two astronauts on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission, which is set to launch later this month. The astronauts will wear compatible suits for their return flight. The Crew-9 mission will also fly an additional SpaceX spacesuit. Another SpaceX spacesuit was launched on a recent cargo supply mission to the ISS.
“The way the Dragon is configured, for an emergency, Butch and Suni riding on the cargo pallet in those temporary seats that I described. But that’s an unsuited configuration, so there’s no spacesuits that work there,” Stich said. “The Dragon’s configured to support four suits and four people with suits.”
To make room on the incoming Crew-9 Dragon spacecraft, NASA opted to launch NASA astronaut Nike Hague and Russian Cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov and leave two seats open for Wilmore and Williams. NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson were bumped from the Crew-9 mission and could fly on a future mission.
Official NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 portraits with Zena Cardman, Nick Hague, Stephanie Wilson and Aleksandr Gorbunov. NASA announced in late August that Wilson and Cardman will remain on Earth to make room on SpaceX’s Dragon to bring home NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.
(NASA)
When Starliner is back on Earth, engineers will continue trying to understand the issues the spacecraft experienced in orbit.
“Many things on the vehicle are working really well,” Stich said. “What we really need to go do is look at the things that didn’t perform the way we expected. Like I talked about the helium leaks. Can we go fix those leaks? Test those on the ground and have confidence to move forward and fly again.”
Stich said NASA is still working toward launching astronauts on Starliner again next year.
Boeing’s Starliner crew flight test came 10 years after NASA awarded contacts to both SpaceX and Boeing. Both companies completed uncrewed flight tests before launching humans to the ISS, but Boeing’s first attempt in 2019 did not make it to the space station, requiring the company to conduct a second attempt in 2022.
When SpaceX launches the Crew-9 mission later this month, it will be the company’s 10th flight with NASA astronauts.