The Boeing Starliner on which Indian-origin NASA astronaut Sunita Williams flew to the International Space Station (ISS) on June 5 was described by astronauts as a space capsule designed for astronauts, but in a big embarrassment for Boeing, it is now set to return without any human astronauts on board. The return trip, in automatic mode, is scheduled for September 6 and the Starliner is expected to land about six hours after it undocks.
The Starliner, whose development was hit by delays, was on its first crewed test flight, carrying Sunita Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore for an eight-day mission. The two astronauts have been at the International Space Station since June 6 and their stay is being extended due to propulsion problems on the Starliner. NASA announced on August 24 that the astronauts will return to Earth in February 2025 and the Boeing spacecraft will return without its crew.
The uncrewed return allows NASA and Boeing to continue collecting test data on the Starliner while not accepting more risk than necessary for its crew. NASA officials said the decision was “unanimous” on their part, while Boeing stressed it could return the Starliner with or without a crew.
‘Tense meeting’
The space agency confirmed that the decision to send the spacecraft back without a crew was made during a “tense” meeting between NASA and Boeing officials.
Explaining this decision, NASA chief Senator Bill Nelson, himself a former astronaut, said, “Space flight is risky, even the safest and most routine kind of flight. Test flights, by their nature, are neither safe nor routine.”
“The decision to keep Butch and Suni (Sunita Williams) on board the International Space Station and return Boeing’s Starliner without a crew is a result of our commitment to safety – our core value and our pole star.”
Boeing, for its part, said it remains confident in the Starliner spacecraft and its ability to return safely to orbit with the crew. “We continue to support NASA’s requests for additional testing, data, analysis and review to confirm the spacecraft’s safe undocking and landing capabilities. Our confidence is based on this valuable testing conducted by Boeing and NASA. Testing confirmed that 27 of the 28 RCS (reaction control system) thrusters are healthy and have returned to fully operational capability,” the company said in a statement.
It further added, “Starliner’s propulsion system also maintains redundancy and helium levels remain stable. The data also supports the root cause assessment of the helium and thruster issues and the flight justification for the return of Starliner and its crew to Earth.”
Requirements not met
But NASA, which had burnt its fingers after the twin accidents of the Challenger and Columbia space shuttles, did not want to take any risks.
In a statement, NASA said that “uncertainty and lack of expert consensus do not meet the agency’s safety and performance requirements for human spaceflight”.
Experts said the space capsule that Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams carried to the International Space Station (ISS) is the most modern crew module and has been designed to ensure that the astronauts flying in it remain safe and comfortable. Ms Williams has left her mark on almost all aspects of the spacecraft as she has been involved in its construction for a long time.
Calypso
According to data released by Boeing, the Starliner is 5 meters high with both the crew module and the service module, has a diameter of 4.6 meters and weighs 13,000 kilograms at lift-off. The Starliner is designed to accommodate a crew of up to seven people, but the NASA mission will carry a crew of four to five people. Each crew module is designed to fly up to 10 missions, so it is partially reusable. However, service modules are built for each mission as they are thrown into space.
The Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 Starliner spacecraft was designed to carry a mix of crew and cargo for missions to low Earth orbit.
Ms Williams, who described the Starliner as a ‘fantastic spacecraft’, was given the opportunity to name the spacecraft she would be flying on and decided to call it ‘Calypso’ – after the famous ship on which French oceanographer and legendary filmmaker Jacques-Yves Cousteau explored the oceans while she was still a student.
Starliner has been hit with long delays and costs far over budget, and some say the problems that have beset Boeing Co.’s aviation business could also plague its space business.
In 2014, NASA awarded Boeing a $4.2 billion contract to build the Starliner from scratch and it only managed to fly its first manned spaceflight this June, ten years later. In comparison, SpaceX, which was awarded a similar contract to develop the Crew Dragon, delivered it at an estimated cost of $2.6 billion and has been carrying astronauts since 2020. Ms Williams and Mr Wilmore will also return to Earth aboard the Crew Dragon.
Development will continue
On August 24, the NASA chief said he was 100% confident that Boeing would continue to develop the Starliner, but stressed that the agency had awarded Boeing a fixed-price contract, meaning the company would have to bear the additional costs for its full certification as a human spaceflight-worthy vehicle at its own expense.
The Starliner has also been in the news recently due to “strange noises” emanating from it, which have now been identified as feedback coming from the speaker.
