INTERPRETER
A series of problems with the new Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft have delayed the return of the International Space Station.
Two NASA-trained astronauts who were testing Boeing’s new CST-100 Starliner spacecraft have been forced to remain aboard the International Space Station (ISS), which orbits about 250 miles (400 kilometers) around Earth, after encountering technical problems had encountered with their spacecraft.
Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore were originally scheduled to return to Earth on June 13, after their Boeing Starliner capsule launched its first crewed flight from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on June 5. But the Starliner was plagued with problems even before launch. June 5 launch. A previous launch attempt was scrapped on June 1, just before liftoff, due to a problem with the performance of the ground computer.
During the 25-hour flight to the International Space Station, the spacecraft experienced several helium leaks and a thruster failure. When the Starliner arrived on June 6 and attempted to dock with the ISS, another four of its 28 thrusters broke down, delaying the ship’s arrival.
According to a Boeing spokesperson, four of the five thrusters that were previously defective are now working normally. “This means that only one of the 27 thrusters is currently offline. This does not pose a problem for the return mission,” the spokesperson added.
Who are the two astronauts stuck in space?
Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams is an American astronaut and United States Navy officer who joined NASA in 1998. Williams made her first spaceflight to the ISS to service electricity-generating solar panels on the Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-116) in December 2006, when she was a flight engineer. Her second mission in May 2012 as a flight engineer was on Expedition 32 to the ISS to test a new microsatellite deployment system. After completing other missions, Williams was one of the first astronauts selected to train for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program in 2015.
Williams has spent a total of 322 days in space to date and is best known for her missions aboard the ISS, where she set records for the longest spaceflight by a woman (195 days) and is the former record holder of seven spacewalks, including astronauts go outside a craft in space, by a female astronaut. This was only broken in 2017 by Peggy Whitson. Whitson has now completed 10 spacewalks.
Williams has received several awards, including the Legion of Merit, Navy Commendation Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal and Humanitarian Service Medal.
Barry “Butch” Wilmore flew on the Space Shuttle Atlantis in November 2009 to deliver components to the ISS and served as commander of the ISS from November 2014 to March 2015.
Wilmore’s first space flight took place aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-129) in November 2009 as part of a mission to deliver spare parts to the ISS. He served as a flight engineer for Expedition 41 in May 2014 to study the effects on the body and plant growth during weightlessness. He also commanded Expedition 42 to study how space affects immune cells and to observe pollution in Earth’s atmosphere in 2014.
Wilmore has also received numerous awards, including the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit and the NASA Space Flight Medal.
What is Boeing doing about the stranded astronauts?
NASA and Boeing are taking advantage of the astronauts’ extra time on board the ISS to further investigate the thruster problems that disrupted the Starliner’s first attempt to dock with the ISS on June 6.
Steven Hirshorn, NASA’s chief aeronautical engineer, took to his LinkedIn page to clarify some issues with the Starliner. “The issues reported on the Starliner, namely the reaction control thruster and helium leaks in the propulsion system, are all on the spacecraft’s service module,” he explained. “When the crew leaves the ISS and loses orbit, the service module is discarded and burns up upon reentry into the atmosphere. The helium systems and thrusters will therefore not return to Earth for failure analysis. They are gone. The only way to gain insight into what is going on there is in space.”
When will the stranded astronauts return to Earth?
According to NASA, the Starliner can be docked with the ISS for up to 45 days, or up to 72 days if a backup system is used.
Last week, NASA said it was targeting a return sometime in early July. NASA stated that the ISS mission teams needed additional time to thoroughly investigate the problems with the propulsion system.
“We are taking our time and following our standard mission management team process,” NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich said in a statement earlier this week. “We are letting the data drive our decision-making regarding management of the small helium system leaks and thruster performance we observed during the rendezvous and docking.”