Fifty days on, Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams is still unsure about when and how she will return to Earth. However, the US space agency says she and the eight other astronauts on the International Space Station are safe and in ‘good spirits’.
An Indian space expert humorously remarked that his situation resembles the situation of ‘Trishanku’ – a position in which a person is precariously, but voluntarily, stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Today, NASA provided further updates indicating they are closer to identifying the root cause of the Boeing Starliner’s malfunctioning systems, such as failed thrusters and a series of helium leaks during its first test flight. However, there was no clarity on when or if astronaut Sunita Williams and her crewmate Butch Wilmore would return, or whether they would do so aboard the same Boeing Starliner spacecraft.
According to Boeing, the Starliner can stay docked with the space station for a maximum of ninety days, after which the batteries on board the spacecraft may run out. As a result, US space technologists have about forty days left to decide whether Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore will return to Earth on the damaged Boeing Starliner or whether they will use SpaceX’s Crew Dragon or the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Both of these standby vehicles are already docked to the space station, so neither Sunita Williams nor the other eight astronauts are actually stranded in space.
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich said the crew’s morale is good and they are making the most of their time on the station under Expedition 71, as both Sunita and Butch have done long-duration missions before. He said contingency plans are in place, but current efforts are focused on getting both Sunita and Butch back to Earth on the Boeing Starliner.
Showing courage in the situation, Mark Nappi, Boeing’s Starliner program manager and vice president, said, “I’m very confident we have a good vehicle (in Boeing Starliner) to bring the crew back.”
Boeing has faced several setbacks during the development of the Starliner. Originally contracted for $4.2 billion, the company has now spent about $5.7 billion, while the mission is still incomplete. NASA sought a second alternative to SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, which is why the Boeing Starliner was being developed. Boeing is also facing wider difficulties, with its aviation and aircraft business in decline, and recently, Boeing CEO David Calhoun was questioned by US senators about the company’s safety culture and transparency during an appearance in the US Congress. If the Boeing Starliner fails to return the two astronauts to Earth, it will be a major setback for this aerospace and space technology giant.
In a statement today, NASA said, ‘With ground testing of the Reaction Control System (RCS) thruster complete and disassembly and inspection concluded, the Starliner team is reviewing data that will support future missions and pave the way for NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams to return to Earth. A planned Flight Test Readiness Review next weekend will determine a landing date for the Starliner Crew Flight Test (CFT), with landing opportunities available throughout August. Testing of the RCS thruster at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico produced meaningful findings for root cause assessment and finalized flight justification in support of a nominal undock and landing.
The Starliner team plans to safely dock 27 of the 28 RCS thrusters to the space station this weekend. The purpose of this test is to verify the thruster’s performance, as will be done during future missions. The team also wants another data point on the helium leak, which has remained constant since the spacecraft’s arrival at the station on June 6. The helium system has been off most of the time while docked, so no helium is leaking in that configuration.
“In addition, NASA and Boeing will conduct a second docked hot-fire test over the weekend to demonstrate the spacecraft’s thruster performance. The first docked hot-fire test took place on June 15. The upcoming test will check for helium leaks as well as verify that the thrusters are operating as expected,” Boeing said in a statement.
Although some glitches were expected during this first test flight, the fact that the ten-day mission has been extended five times beyond its expected duration, with no confirmed completion date, is extremely worrying for the global space community.
