The Starliner spacecraft docked with the International Space Station on June 13 and is orbiting 262 miles above Egypt’s Mediterranean coast.
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When astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on June 5, they thought they had enough Time to come back and spend the Juneteenth holiday.
The two are test-driving Boeing’s latest spacecraft “Starliner”. All they have to do is put it through testing, briefly dock with the International Space Station (ISS), and then go home. The entire mission is expected to last about a week.
Instead, a series of leaks and glitches led NASA to postpone the pair’s return indefinitely.
Whatever you do, don’t say they’re trapped.
Mark Nappi, Boeing’s vice president of commercial crew programs, told reporters at a press conference on June 28: “We are not trapped on the International Space Station.” Suni and Butch returned to Earth. “
Here’s what’s happening with Boeing’s latest spacecraft.
NASA Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams appear aboard the International Space Station. The astronauts’ return to Earth has been delayed while NASA conducts additional tests of Starliner’s thrusters.
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Even before launch, there were problems
Things have not gone smoothly for Starliner. During its first uncrewed test flight in 2019, it failed to reach its intended orbit. The problem was later traced to an incorrectly set onboard clock, causing the Starliner’s thrusters to fire at the wrong time.
During that trip, Starliner never reached the International Space Station, and NASA requested a second test flight without astronauts. When it launched again in 2022, the two thrusters on Starliner failed to fire as expected. It successfully switched to backup thrusters and docked with the space station.
The astronauts were eventually scheduled to launch last year, but then Boeing discovered two more problems with the spacecraft: problems with the parachute system that allowed them to float back to Earth, and a potential fire risk with the tape used to secure wires. Resolving these two issues pushed the release to this spring.
Finally, Williams and Wilmore buckled up on May 6, when more problems arose — a stuck valve on the rocket that launched Starliner had to be replaced, and mission engineers discovered that Starliner itself was leaking helium .
Helium is used to pressurize the Starliner’s propulsion system, and it took NASA several weeks to determine that the leak was not serious enough to cause the helium to run out during the mission.
Boeing’s Starliner capsule aboard an Atlas V rocket finally lifted off on June 5 from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The launch was finally completed.
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Thruster cluster causes panic
When all systems finally “fired up,” the Starliner launch went off without a hitch. On June 5, Williams and Wilmore took to orbit.
But as they approached the International Space Station, new problems arose. Five of the 28 “reaction control thrusters” on the Starliner service module unexpectedly shut down, leaving the spacecraft outside the docking port while engineers performed some troubleshooting.
Eventually, the spacecraft successfully docked with the space station and four of the five thrusters came back online. But NASA later revealed that four more helium leaks were found in different parts of the spacecraft, bringing the total to five.
NASA now says additional testing and evaluation of these issues are needed before Williams and Wilmore return to Earth. Space agency engineers suspect the helium leak may have been caused by a seal failure, but they do not believe it poses any risk. But thruster issues are harder to pin down.
NASA said it will conduct extensive testing of Starliner thrusters starting this week at its White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The problem was replicated and the thrusters were confirmed to be safe to use to bring Williams and Wilmore home.
“Once testing is complete, we will look at landing plans,” Steve Stich, program manager for NASA’s commercial crew program, told reporters. The entire process could take weeks, he said.
Don’t say it’s stuck
Even before the latest press conference, news outlets had speculated that Williams and Wilmore might be stranded on the space station. Boeing seemed particularly offended by the claim.
“astronaut no NPR received the first lines of the company’s statement on the matter on June 26.
As Starliner prepared to dock with the International Space Station, several thrusters failed to fire as expected.
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“They’re not stranded in space,” agreed Laura Forczyk, executive director of space consulting group Astralytical. Astronauts live comfortably on the International Space Station.
Stich said Starliner is designed to stay in space for up to 210 days. The test flight was originally supposed to be limited to 45 days due to the spacecraft’s battery life, but Stich said the space station is charging the batteries as designed and NASA is looking to extend that limit.
In a real pinch, NASA could use a SpaceX Dragon capsule or a Russian Soyuz capsule to bring the two men home, but Forczyk doubts that would be necessary.
“I don’t think it’s anything serious or life-threatening,” Folcik said. “I just think they should be extra cautious because the car wasn’t operating as it was supposed to.”
Folcik noted that the problem with the helium system and thrusters was in the Starliner’s service module, which is part of the spacecraft that will be jettisoned before landing. For that reason, she said, engineers may want to keep Starliner on the space station longer so they can collect more data from the module before it burns up during reentry.
In further evidence of NASA’s confidence in Starliner, Williams and Wilmore took refuge inside the spacecraft last week after a Russian satellite disintegrated, creating orbital debris that could threaten the space station.
“Butch and Suny boarded the spacecraft, powered up the spacecraft, closed the hatches, and prepared to perform … an emergency escape and landing,” Stitch said.
Starliner’s future may be in trouble
In 2014, Boeing won a $4.2 billion Starliner construction contract from NASA. The spacecraft was supposed to regularly carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station within a decade. The flights are now years behind schedule, with delays costing Boeing at least $1.5 billion.
At the same time, competitor SpaceX, which received only US$2.6 billion in awards, successfully carried out manned flights in 2020 and completed 8 regular manned missions to the space station for NASA.
Bank of America analyst Ron Epstein said the issues are part of a larger problem for the aerospace giant. “I don’t think you can look at it in isolation,” he said.
Boeing has also seen problems with its 737 Max planes, including doors flying off the plane earlier this year, and deliveries of two 747s used on the presidential Air Force One have been delayed.
Starliner will eventually land somewhere in the western United States, just as it did during an unmanned flight test in 2022.
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Epstein said the problems were fundamentally caused by company management abandoning “core engineering.”
“For many years, the management team has been more focused on shareholder returns than on the company’s core engineering business,” he said.
Starliner’s first scheduled flight to carry astronauts to the International Space Station is currently scheduled for February 2025, but it’s unclear whether NASA will certify the new spacecraft in time. Even so, it may only fly a handful of times before NASA decommissions the space station in 2030.
Epstein said that given all of this, if NASA needs to make extensive modifications and repairs to Starliner, Boeing may decide to abandon the program entirely.
“I think Boeing management has made it clear to the investment community that Starliner and certain aspects of space are not core to them,” he said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the company doesn’t want to continue.”
But Boeing’s Nappi said the company is fully committed to Starliner. “The simple and clear answer to that question is: ‘No, we’re not quitting,'” he said. “That’s our job.”
