In this image from video provided by NASA, the empty Boeing Starliner capsule floats down towards White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico late Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, after undocking from the International Space Station.
| Photo Credit: AP/NASA

Boeing’s beleaguered Starliner returned to Earth on Saturday (September 7, 2024) without the astronauts who traveled in it to the International Space Station, after NASA deemed the risk too great.

The gumdrop-shaped capsule landed gently at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico at approximately 0401 GMT, its descent slowed by parachutes and cushioned by airbags, having departed the ISS around six hours earlier.

After months of turmoil over its safety, Boeing’s new astronaut capsule departed the International Space Station on Friday (September 6, 2024) without its crew and headed back to Earth.

NASA’s two test pilots stayed behind at the space station — their home until next year — as the Starliner capsule undocked 260 miles (420 kilometres) over China, springs gently pushing it away from the orbiting laboratory. The return flight was expected to take six hours, with a nighttime touchdown in the New Mexico desert.

“She’s on her way home,” astronaut Suni Williams radioed after Starliner exited

Ms. Williams and Butch Wilmore should have flown Starliner back to Earth in June, a week after launching in it. But thruster failures and helium leaks marred their ride to the space station.

NASA ultimately decided it was too risky to return the duo on Starliner. So the fully automated capsule left with its empty seats and blue spacesuits along with some old station equipment. SpaceX will bring the duo back in late February, stretching their original eight-day mission to more than eight months.

(With inputs from AP)

NASA’s Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams will close the hatches between Starliner and the space station on Thursday (September 5, 2024). 
| Photo Credit: AP

Boeing will attempt to return its problem-plagued capsule from the International Space Station later this week — with empty seats.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said on Wednesday (September 4, 2024) that everything is on track for the Starliner capsule to undock from the space station Friday evening. The fully automated capsule will aim for a touchdown in New Mexico’s White Sands Missile Range six hours later.

NASA’s two stuck astronauts who flew up on Starliner will remain behind at the orbiting lab. They will ride home with SpaceX in February, eight months after launching on what should have been a weeklong test flight. Thruster trouble and helium leaks kept delaying their return until NASA decided that it was too risky for them to accompany Starliner back as originally planned.

Also Read: Explained | What does spaceflight do to the human body?

“It’s been a journey to get here and we’re excited to have Starliner return,” said NASA’s commercial crew program manager Steve Stich.

NASA’s Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams will close the hatches between Starliner and the space station on Thursday (September 5, 2024). They are now considered full-time station crew members along with the seven others on board, helping with experiments and maintenance and ramping up their exercise to keep their bones and muscles strong during their prolonged exposure to weightlessness.

To make room for them on SpaceX’s next taxi flight, the Dragon capsule will launch with two astronauts instead of the usual four. Two were cut late last week from the six-month expedition, which is due to blast off in late September. Boeing has to free up the parking place for SpaceX’s arrival.

Boeing encountered serious flaws with Starliner long before its June 5 liftoff on the long-delayed astronaut demo.

Starliner’s first test flight went so poorly in 2019 — the capsule never reached the space station because of software errors — that the mission was repeated three years later. More problems surfaced, resulting in even more delays and more than $1 billion in repairs.

Also Read: Explained | Significance of Boeing Starliner’s first crewed test flight on May 7,2024

The capsule had suffered multiple thruster failures and propulsion-system helium leaks by the time it pulled up at the space station after launch. Boeing conducted extensive thruster tests in space and on the ground and contended the capsule could safely bring the astronauts back. But NASA disagreed, setting the complex ride swap in motion.

Starliner will make a faster, simpler getaway than planned, using springs to push away from the space station and then short thruster firings to gradually increase the distance. The original plan called for an hour of dallying near the station, mostly for picture-taking; that was cut to 20 or so minutes to reduce the stress on the capsule’s thrusters and keep the station safe.

Additional test firings of Starliner’s 28 thrusters are planned before the all-important descent from orbit. Engineers want to learn as much as they can since the thrusters won’t return to Earth; the section containing them will be ditched before the capsule reenters.

The stuck astronauts — retired Navy captains — have lived on the space station before and settled in just fine, according to NASA officials. Even though their mission focus has changed, “they’re just as dedicated to the success of human spaceflight going forward,” flight director Anthony Vareha said.

The blue Boeing spacesuits will return with the capsule, along with some old station equipment.

NASA hired Boeing and SpaceX a decade ago to ferry its astronauts to and from the space station after its shuttles retired. SpaceX accomplished the feat in 2020 and has since launched nine crews for NASA and four for private customers.

Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams’s job was simple when they took off to the International Space Station (ISS) on June 5. They were to test-fly the Boeing Starliner crew capsule for the first time with a human crew, assess its performance (including its manual controls), dock with the ISS, and return to the earth in about a week.

But what was supposed to be a straightforward eight-day mission has since turned into an eight-month opera, with NASA now indicating the two astronauts will return only in 2025. Starliner’s helium leak and malfunctioning thrusters have caused this delay. While Boeing remains optimistic, it doesn’t look like the duo will return to the earth onboard Starliner..

ISS’s current occupants

Nine crew members are currently aboard the ISS as part of Expedition 71: Williams, Wilmore, Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, Tracy Caldwell-Dyson, Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps, and Alexander Grebenkin.

Kononenko and Chub arrived at the ISS onboard the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft as part of Expedition 70 and stayed on for Expedition 71. Caldwell-Dyson joined the ISS crew on March 25 this year, aboard Soyuz MS-25. All three are scheduled to return on September 24 onboard Soyuz MS-25.

Dominick, Barratt, Epps, and Grebenkin arrived at the ISS as part of the SpaceX Crew-8 onboard the Dragon Endeavour on March 5, to join Expedition 71. They are also set to return to Earth in September 2024 using the same craft.

As Expedition 71 prepares for its return journey, its crew will hand over the space station to the members of Expedition 72, which will begin on September 24 with a seven-member crew.

Williams and Wilmore should have left the ISS before Expedition 72 began. Thanks to Starliner’s malfunctioning thrusters, they are currently extending their stay at the ISS.

Supplies to the station

Plenty of food and other supplies are available on the ISS. They were recently restocked, too. On August 14, the Progress MS-28 (a.k.a. Progress 89P) cargo resupply ship launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying about three tonnes of food, clothing, fuel, medical and hygiene supplies, and scientific equipment to the space station. This included 950 kg of propellant, 420 kg of water, and 50 kg of nitrogen to replenish the station’s atmosphere.

Almost 50% of the oxygen from exhaled carbon dioxide is recycled. More oxygen is produced by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity generated by solar panels. The main challenge is the smell: body odour can linger in the confined space of the station, making the air unbreathable. To address this, nitrogen from the earth is mixed with the oxygen produced in the station to create fresh air.

A week earlier, on August 4, the Cygnus NG-21 American cargo spacecraft had delivered 3.8 tonnes of cargo and supplies to the ISS, including 1,021 kg of crew supplies (such as food and clothing), 1,220 kg of research equipment, 43 kg of spacewalk equipment, 1,560 kg of hardware for ISS repair and maintenance, and 13 kg of computer resources.

With these replenishments, there is no shortage of essential items such as food, water, oxygen, and other supplies to meet the additional demands.

What the astronauts wear

The space station doesn’t have laundry. In its 22º to 25º C conditions, the astronauts don’t sweat much either and there is hardly any dust. As a result, clothes don’t become dirty even if worn for weeks.

The crew changes exercise gear weekly. Inner clothing is worn once every few days, and shirts, tops, pants, and trousers are worn for weeks. Discarded clothing is stored in a cargo ship along with other refuse generated on the station. When a new resupply ship arrives, the old cargo ship is detached and re-enters the earth’s atmosphere, where it safely burns up.

With two resupply ships docking with the ISS in just weeks, NASA will surely have sent the necessary replacement articles of clothing for Willians and Wilmore.

Jostling for space

The ISS is as big as a six-bedroom villa yet is equipped with only seven permanent sleeping pods. When extra members arrive, there are not enough beds for everyone.

This is not a new problem: there are often more astronauts than bedrooms. In 2009, a record number of 13 members lived on the station. Any surface on the space station — whether a floor, wall or ceiling — is suitable to roll out a sleeping bag. It just has to be fastened to the surface to prevent it from drifting around.

The space station also has three commodes to meet the needs of an 11-member crew. There are no showers and members do not bathe. Water does not rain down in space from the shower; it hovers as droplets. Instead, the crew uses special wipes to sponge the body and keep it clean.

When the crew is at full capacity, exercise schedules become harder to plan. Each astronaut must adhere to a specific exercise regimen to counter muscle and bone loss in orbit. Mission controllers carefully allocate exercise time for each resident.

Welcome to overstay

This isn’t the first time crew members have lingered in the ISS beyond the plan. Minor glitches like in the weather can delay the return of spacecraft, extending the stay for days — as can technical issues.

In 1979, Cosmonauts Vladimir Lyakhov and Valery Ryumin had to extend their stay from 108 to 175 days in the Soviet space station Salyut when the ship carrying a replacement crew hit a snag. The replacement crew landed safely back down. Fearing the Soyuz spacecraft that took them to the Salyut station might also be faulty, ground controllers called it back empty. Another uncrewed capsule was launched later to retrieve them.

The case of Sergei Krikalev and Alexander Volkov was curious. Krikalev, riding on the Soyuz TM-12, launched on May 19, 1991, and reached Mir station. Volkov joined him in October 1991, ferried by Soyuz TM-13. They both opted to stay back and supervise the Mir space station when its remaining crew returned to the earth. But in the meantime, the Soviet Union was plunged into political chaos and was dissolved on December 26. The duo thus went to space as Soviet citizens and returned on March 25, 1992, as Russian citizens. Krikalev ended up being in space for 311 consecutive days, twice the duration of his original mission.

Following the Columbia tragedy in 2003 that killed seven astronauts, cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin and U.S. astronauts Ken Bowerso and Don Pettit were marooned in ISS. They had to wait two months before an uncrewed replacement Soyuz spacecraft brought them home in May 2003.

A small space rock hit the Soyuz spacecraft that took U.S. astronaut Frank Rubio and cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin to the ISS in 2022. The coolant tank developed a puncture and gas leaked out, rendering the craft inoperable. They had to spend 371 days in space instead of the planned 188. A replacement Soyuz craft was sent swiftly, but they remained onboard the ISS until 2023 for operational reasons.

The back-up plan

In the event the Starliner is deemed unfit for the return journey, NASA has a backup plan: the Crew 9 Dragon team, consisting of four members, will replace the current crew. The SpaceX Crew 9 mission is scheduled for launch in September 2024 and return in February 2025.

If Starliner is not fit by then, NASA also plans to ground two crews and launch only a two-member team. Williams and Wilmore will be inducted as the official crew of Expedition 72. During the return journey, they will join Crew 9 Dragon and occupy the two vacant seats.

T.V. Venkateswaran is a science communicator and visiting faculty member at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali.

This undated handout picture from Nasa released on July 2, 2024 shows NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts (from top) Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams inside the vestibule between the forward port on the International Space Station’s Harmony module and Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft.
| Photo Credit: AFP

NASA said on Wednesday (August 14, 2024) it’s still deciding whether to keep two astronauts at the International Space Station until early next year and send their troubled Boeing capsule back empty.

Rather than flying Boeing’s Starliner back to Earth, Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams would catch a ride on SpaceX’s next flight. That option would keep them at the space station until next February.

Also read:Why NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore, Sunita Williams may be in space until 2025

The test pilots anticipated being away just a week or so when they rocketed away as Starliner’s first crew. But thruster failures and helium leaks marred the capsule’s trip to the space station, raising doubts about its ability to return safely and leaving the astronauts in limbo.

NASA officials said they’re analyzing more data before making a decision by end of next week or beginning of the next. These thrusters are crucial for holding the capsule in the right position when it comes time to descend from orbit.

“We’ve got time available before we bring Starliner home and we want to use that time wisely,” said Ken Bowersox, NASA’s space operations mission chief.

NASA’s safety chief Russ DeLoach added: “We don’t have enough insight and data to make some sort of simple, black-and-white calculation.”

DeLoach said the space agency wants to make room for all opinions unlike what happened on NASA’s two shuttle tragedies, Challenger and Columbia, when dissenting views were ignored.

“That may mean, at times, we don’t move very fast because we’re getting everything out, and I think you can kind of see that at play here,” he said.

Switching to SpaceX would require bumping two of the four astronauts assigned to the next ferry flight, currently targeted for late September. Wilmore and Williams would take the empty seats in SpaceX’s Dragon capsule once that half-year mission ends.

Another complication: The space station has just two parking places for U.S. capsules. Boeing’s capsule would have to depart ahead of the arrival of SpaceX’s Dragon in order to free up a spot.

Boeing maintains Starliner could still safely bring the astronauts home. The company earlier this month posted a list of testing done on thrusters in space and on the ground since liftoff.

NASA would like to keep SpaceX’s current crew up there until the replacements arrive, barring an emergency. Those four should have returned to Earth this month, but saw a seventh month added to their mission because of the uncertainty over Starliner, keeping them up there until the end of September. Most space station stays last six months, although some have gone a full year.

Wilmore and Williams are retired Navy captains who spent months aboard the space station years ago. They eased into space station work as soon as they arrived, helping with experiments and repairs.

“They will do what we ask them to do. That’s their job as astronauts,” said NASA chief astronaut Joe Acaba.

He added: “This mission is a test flight and as Butch and Suni expressed ahead of their launch, they knew this mission might not be perfect.”

Eager to have competing services and backup options, NASA hired SpaceX and Boeing to transport astronauts to and from the space station after the shuttles retired in 2011.

SpaceX’s first astronaut flight was in 2020. Boeing suffered so much trouble on its initial test flight without a crew in 2019 that a do-over was ordered. Then more problems cropped up, costing the company more than $1 billion to fix before finally flying astronauts.

New Delhi:

Astronaut Sunita Williams’ mission may have been prolonged because of glitches in the Boeing Starliner capsule but she is in the “safest possible place in space” and there is no cause for concern, ISRO Chairman S Somanath has said. 

Speaking exclusively to NDTV on Tuesday, Mr Somanath was asked whether he had any concerns about Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla going to the International Space Station (ISS) later this year, given that Ms Williams – an Indian-origin astronaut – has been there for two months on what was supposed to be a mission lasting approximately a week.

“That has nothing to do with the ISS. Apart from Ms Williams, there are eight other astronauts, many of whom have been there for a long time. Their plan of return is with some other missions that are yet to be scheduled. The only question with Ms Williams is that she had planned for a week-long mission and should have returned aboard the Boeing starliner, which has faced some technical issues,” the ISRO chief said. 

“But they are in the safest place possible in space, which is the International Space Station, so there is no cause for concern. There is definitely a way to bring them back. Either on the Starliner or some other capsule, two of which are already there. But to bring back a crew trained on one craft with certain specifications to another… switching is not easy, it has never been done before. There are technical issues to be addressed which can be done by the concerned people,” he added.

Mr Somanath emphasised, however, that his expectation is that Ms Williams and her fellow astronaut on the Starliner mission, Barry “Butch” Wilmore, would return to Earth on the Boeing capsule itself. 

“They may delay it to make sure that the Starliner becomes cleared for return,” he said. 

Ms Williams and Mr Wilmore took off aboard the Boeing Starliner in June and have been at the ISS since the sixth of that month. The Starliner has faced glitches in the propulsion system following a series of helium leaks and the astronauts, NASA and Boeing are working on a fix to get them back to Earth. 

Group Captain Shukla will be on the Indo-US Axiom-4 mission to the International Space Station, which is expected to launch in early 2025. According to ISRO, the Gaganyatri will undertake selected scientific research and technology demonstration experiments on board the ISS as well as engage in space outreach activities. The mission will be led by Dr Peggy Annette Whitson, who is America’s most experienced astronaut. 

Story so far: Veteran American astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry (Butch) Wilmore, are still docked with the International Space Station (ISS) since June 6 after facing delays, space debris threats, helium leaks and technical glitches on the Starliner spacecraft on which they travelled.

The U.S Space Agency — National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) — held a ‘space-to-earth’ news conference with the two astronauts on July 10 to receive an update on their mission’s progress. Both astronauts said they ‘felt confident’ that they could return to Earth on Starliner itself.

Also read | How Boeing can bring NASA’s Sunita Williams, Barry Wilmore back to Earth

“I have a real good feeling in my heart that this spacecraft will bring us home, no problem,” said Ms. Williams, while Mr. Wilmore said, “That mantra you’ve heard, failure is not an option.” He added that both crew members were staying on the ISS to test the spacecraft

NASA along with the space capsule’s manufacturer Boeing is evaluating Starliner’s propulsion system and the five small helium leaks in the service module. The team is conducting ground tests on identical thrusters at New Mexico’s White Sands Missile Range while another investigation is underway at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama to determine why the propulsion system’s seal failed, leading to helium leaks.

The continued delay in Ms. Williams and Mr. Wilmore’s safe return, which was initially scheduled to begin on June 18, has piqued concerns across the world, including India. Apart from Ms. Williams and Mr. Wilmore, NASA astronauts Michael Barratt, Matt Dominick, Tracy C. Dyson, Jeanette Epps and Russian Cosmonauts Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin, and Oleg Kononenko are aboard the ISS.

Here’s a look at the attempted launches, what went wrong, and current efforts for the crew’s safe return

Starliner’s attempted launches and success

Sunita Williams, 58, is the pilot of NASA’s Crew Flight Test mission aboard Boeing’s Starliner space capsule. The mission is a joint venture between NASA and American private space players to open up commercial travel to low-Earth orbits and the ISS to more people for scientific and commercial purposes.

United Launch Alliance, a joint venture by Boeing and Lockheed Martin manufactured the Atlas V rocket which transported the astronauts via Boeing’s space capsule Starliner to the ISS. With this, NASA will have a second space capsule option (apart from SpaceX’s Crew Dragon), which has a crew module which can house up to seven astronauts and a non-reusable service module which houses the equipment and systems (air, temperature controls, water supply etc) needed for a stay in space.

The first crewed test flight of Starliner with the above-mentioned astronauts was scheduled for May 6 for a week-long stay at the ISS. However, the flight was scrapped less than two hours before the launch after an issue was detected in an oxygen relief valve of the rocket’s second stage. All launch activities were suspended and the flight was postponed to May 17.

A helium leak was detected in a thruster in Starliner’s service module, further postponing the launch to June 1. On that day, the ground launch sequencer, the computer which launches the rocket, triggered an automatic hold stopping the countdown clock three minutes fifty seconds before the launch.

On June 5, Starliner was finally launched successfully from NASA’s Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida and the two astronauts docked with the forward-facing port of the ISS. During their week long stay, the astronauts were tasked with verifying if Starliner was performing as intended by conducting tests on the various control systems and manoeuvring the thrusters. Prior to take-off, a small helium leak was noticed in the space capsule’s propulsion system but not deemed serious.

What went wrong?

En-route to the ISS, four more small helium leaks sprung up. Both NASA and Boeing officials reviewed flight data to find out the cause of the leaks. On June 6, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich admitted that similar thruster issues were revealed during the spacecraft’s uncrewed test flight in 2022, adding, “thought we had fixed that problem,” at a press conference.

The undocking and return journey of Starliner, which was scheduled for June 18, was postponed to June 22, then June 25 and later to July 2.

Mr. Stich opined that thruster issues may have been caused overheating when fuel was burned during the space capsule’s rendezvous with the ISS. According to CNN, the Starliner’s service module has 28 reaction control thrusters, of which five have failed during flight. Four were brought back online eventually.

The Starliner, which had its first uncrewed Orbital test flight in 2019, faced a software glitch, leaving the space capsule in the wrong orbit before it returned to ground without docking with the ISS. In 2022, the space capsule successfully conducted its first uncrewed test flight when it docked with the ISS and then undocked four days later to return to Earth. This flight too faced issues with the thrusters.

What is causing the delay?

Apart from technical issues, the crew also faced a debris collision threat on June 28. The US Space Command alerted the six astronauts onboard the ISS to execute ‘safe haven’ procedures i.e. crew members board the spacecraft they arrived in, in case an emergency departure is needed. This was necessitated after a defunct Russian satellite (RESURS-P1) broke into more than 100 pieces of debris in an orbit near the ISS. Ms. Williams and Mr. Wilmore were forced to board the Starliner to take shelter for an hour before they resumed their activities on the ISS.

On July 2, NASA said that the spacecraft was in good shape to remain docked to the ISS for over 45 days (its upper limit), giving the ground teams of NASA and Boeing time to conduct simulations and tests on the thrusters. Analysis is also underway to determine why several helium leaks have arisen in the capsule, said NASA. Currently, NASA has not set any end date to the mission, making the extension indefinite.

How will the crew return?

In the July 10 press conference, NASA has said, that if absolutely necessary, Starliner would be capable of returning to Earth – acting as an escape pod. Moreover, NASA also has the option of ferrying Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams to Earth aboard Crew Dragon. The SpaceX spaceship transported four astronauts to the ISS in March and is capable of fitting more people in case of an emergency. However, such an option has would be a last resort in case Starliner is deemed non-functional.

But NASA has reiterated its confidence in the Starliner to return the duo, dropping the option of using the Crew Dragon.

Indian-origin Sunita Williams has said she is looking forward to meeting the Indian astronauts who will fly to the International Space Station (ISS).

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is working on a joint project with the US’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to send an Indian astronaut to space. Of the four astronauts that India had chosen, two will be sent to NASA for training, and one of them will be selected for the space mission, ISRO chief Dr S Somanath told NDTV last month.

The two space agencies have also collaborated for NISAR (NASA ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar), a joint Earth-observation mission.

“India and the US have had much success working together to explore the stars. And our future together could not be brighter,” Sunita Williams said in her video message to the US embassy in Delhi on America’s Independence Day from the ISS, which orbits some 400 kilometers above Earth.

Ladies and gentlemen, brace yourselves for a show-stopping moment! Straight from the International Space Station, we had a special message from the incredible astronauts @Astro_Suni, Tracy Dyson, and @Astro_Jeanette for our space-themed national day celebration in New Delhi last… pic.twitter.com/PsG56LlzVB

— U.S. Embassy India (@USAndIndia) July 11, 2024

She is currently stuck on the ISS due to a problem-plagued Boeing Starliner for almost a month.

“NASA and the ISRO continue to work toward the launch of NISAR, which will launch from India this year to measure changes in our planet’s surface,” she said.

“After returning to Earth, we look forward to meeting Indian astronauts training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Our partnership with India and the countries around the world will help expand humanity’s reach for the sky,” Williams added.

She was joined by her fellow astronauts Tracy C Dyson and Jeanette J Epps.

NASA To Train 2 Indians, Send One Of Them To Space

The ISRO’s work to send an astronaut to space in a joint project with NASA is going on as scheduled, the Indian space agency’s chief Dr S Somanath told NDTV in an exclusive interview on June 29.

Of the four astronauts that India had chosen, two will be sent to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for training, and one of them will be selected for the space mission, he said.

“Similarly, the other two will also get training of a different kind… So all four of them will go through certain levels of training through this programme. Many engineers will also be trained by NASA to handle other aspects of space flight,” Dr Somanath said.

He said the ISRO’s eventual goal is human space flight, and the learnings from the whole programme with NASA will feed into the Indian space agency’s experience in finally sending humans to space.

“When we get the capability, if a head of state wants to fly to space, for example, it must be on our vehicle, from our land. I will wait for our Gaganyaan to be ready, to be proven, to be qualified to do that,” the ISRO chief told NDTV when asked whether key leaders would be eligible to fly to space in the far future.

Washington:

A pair of US astronauts stuck waiting to leave the International Space Station said Wednesday they were confident that the problem-plagued Boeing Starliner they rode up on would soon bring them home, even as significant uncertainties remain.

Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams blasted off on June 5 aboard the brand new spaceship that NASA is hoping to certify to ferry crews to-and-from the orbital outpost.

They docked the following day for what was meant to be roughly a week-long stay, but their return was pushed back because of thruster malfunctions and helium leaks that came to light during the journey.

No date has been set for the return, but NASA officials said Wednesday they were eying “late July.”

Asked during a live press call from the station whether they still had faith in the Starliner team and the spaceship, mission commander Wilmore replied: “We’re absolutely confident.”

“I have a real good feeling in my heart that the spacecraft will bring us home, no problem,” added Sunita Williams.

She said they were continuing to enjoy their time aboard the ISS, performing tasks like changing out the pump on a machine that processes urine back into drinking water, and carrying out science experiments such as gene sequencing in the microgravity environment.

They have also tested Starliner as a “safe haven” vehicle in case of problems aboard the ISS and checked out how its life support performs when four people are inside.

Lingering uncertainty

Before Wilmore and Williams can come home, however, engineering teams need to run more simulations of similar thrusters and helium seals on the ground, to better understand the root causes of some of the technical issues Starliner experienced — and modify the way it will fly down, if necessary.

It was known there was one helium leak affecting the spaceship before the launch, but more leaks emerged during the flight. Helium, while non-combustible, provides pressure to the propulsion system.

What’s more, some of Starliner’s thrusters that provide fine maneuvering initially failed to kick in during its approach to the station, delaying docking.

Engineers are not sure why the craft’s computer “deselected” these thrusters, though they were able to restart all but one of them.

In a subsequent press call, Boeing executive Mark Nappi told reporters that the “working theory” for the thruster malfunction was overheating due to excessive firing.

Theories on the cause of the helium leaks ranged from debris entering the propulsion system to Boeing possibly installing seals that were undersized for the task.

NASA and Boeing insist Starliner could fly home in case of an emergency, particularly since the problems affected only certain thrusters that control orientation.

They have no concerns over any of the more powerful thrusters responsible for the “deorbit burn” that will bring the spaceship back.

But much remains unclear — including whether the orientation control thrusters that malfunctioned have become degraded, which would make it necessary to rely on other thrusters during descent, NASA official Steve Stich said.

He insisted that NASA wasn’t yet considering bringing Williams and Wilmore back on a SpaceX Crew Dragon, in what would amount to a major humiliation for the aerospace giant Boeing, whose reputation has taken a hit in recent years over the safety crisis affecting its commercial jets.

“The prime option today is to return Butch and Suni on Starliner,” said Stich, while conceding that a return flight on a SpaceX spaceship can’t be ruled out.

In 2014, both SpaceX and Boeing were awarded multibillion-dollar contracts by NASA to develop crewed spaceships after the retirement of the Space Shuttle program. SpaceX carried out a successful crewed test in 2020 and has flown dozens of people since.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

A Russian satellite has broken up into more than 100 pieces of debris in orbit, forcing astronauts on the International Space Station to take shelter, U.S. space agencies said.

There were no immediate details on what caused the break-up of the RESURS-P1 Russian Earth observation satellite, which was decommissioned in 2022. U.S. Space Command said on Thursday there was no immediate threat as it tracks the debris swarm.

The event occurred around 10 a.m. Mountain Time (1600 GMT) on Wednesday, Space Command said. It occurred in an orbit near the space station, prompting U.S. astronauts on board to shelter in their spacecraft for roughly an hour, NASA’s Space Station office said.

Radars from U.S. space-tracking firm LeoLabs detected the satellite releasing several fragments up until 6 p.m. Mountain Time, the company said.

U.S. Space Command, which has its own global network of space-tracking radars, said the satellite immediately created “over 100 pieces of trackable debris.”

Large debris-generating events in orbit are rare but of increasing concern as space becomes crowded with satellite networks vital to everyday life on Earth, from broadband internet and communications to basic navigation services.

Russia sparked international fury in 2021 when it struck one of its defunct satellites in orbit with a ground-based anti-satellite missile, creating thousands of pieces of debris to test a weapon system ahead of its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The prospect of satellite collisions and space warfare have added urgency to calls from space advocates and lawyers to have countries establish an international mechanism of managing space traffic, which does not currently exist.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

NASA astronaut Suni Williams (seated L) and Butch Wilmore (seated R) pose with the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) after the docking of the Boeing Starliner on June 6, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Problems with Boeing’s Starliner capsule, still docked at the International Space Station (ISS), have upended the original plans for its return of its two astronauts to Earth, as last-minute fixes and tests draw out a mission crucial to the future of Boeing’s space division.

NASA has rescheduled the planned return three times and now has no date set for it.

Since its June 5 lift-off, the capsule has had five helium leaks, five manoeuvring thrusters go dead and a propellant valve failed to close completely, prompting the crew in space and mission managers in Houston to spend more time than expected pursuing fixes mid-mission.

Here is an explanation of potential paths forward for Starliner and its veteran NASA astronauts, Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams.

The current situation

Starliner can stay docked at the ISS for up to 45 days, according to comments by NASA’s commercial crew manager Steve Stich to reporters. But, if necessary, such as if more problems arise that mission officials cannot fix in time, it could stay docked for up to 72 days, relying on various backup systems, according to a person familiar with flight planning.

Internally at NASA, Starliner’s latest targeted return date is July 6, according to a source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Such a return date would mean that the mission, originally planned for eight days, instead would last a month.

Starliner’s expendable propulsion system is part of the craft’s “service module.” The current problems centre on this system, which is needed to back the capsule away from the ISS and position it to dive through Earth’s atmosphere. Many of Starliner’s thrusters have overheated when fired, and the helium leaks — used to pressurise the thrusters — appear to be connected to how frequently they are used, according to Mr. Stich.

Mr. Stich said recent test-firings of the thrusters while Starliner remains docked gave mission teams confidence in a safe return, though tests and reviews are ongoing. The mission management team, made up of NASA and Boeing personnel, is scrutinising data on the propulsion issues, running simulations in Houston and considering how to fix them, such as by updating software or changing how the hardware is used.

Once NASA officials give the team a go-ahead for a return, Starliner’s thrusters would be used to undock the capsule from the ISS and begin a roughly six-hour journey home, gradually tightening its orbit before plunging into Earth’s atmosphere for a landing, assisted by parachutes and airbags, at one of several potential locations in the southwestern United States.

This is Starliner’s first mission to orbit carrying astronauts — the final test needed before NASA can certify it as the U.S. space agency’s second ride to the ISS.

It would join SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, which has dominated the government and nascent private markets for human spaceflight amid Starliner’s years-long delays.

If the unexpected happens

Even with the propulsion system issues, NASA has said Starliner still would be capable of returning the astronauts to Earth if absolutely necessary — that is, if the capsule must serve as an escape pod from the ISS in an emergency or if any of Starliner’s perishable items such as its solar panels show signs of expiring earlier than planned.

Unlike Starliner’s current mission, NASA did not set a scheduled return date for Crew Dragon’s first mission carrying astronauts in 2020. That mission ultimately lasted 62 days because the astronauts needed to help out on ISS maintenance because the space station was short-staffed at the time.

If the Starliner cannot be used

If Starliner is deemed incapable of safely returning Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams to Earth, one option would be sending them home aboard Crew Dragon, which ferried four astronauts to the station in March and is able to fit more people in an emergency.

That scenario, considered unlikely, would undoubtedly be embarrassing for Boeing. But NASA and Boeing officials, as well as engineers familiar with the programme, told Reuters nothing about Starliner’s current problems indicates this would be needed.

In such a scenario, Starliner’s fate would depend on various factors including the extent of its technical issues.

The last time a NASA astronaut needed an alternative ride home came in 2022, when Russia’s Soyuz capsule sprang a coolant leak after delivering to the station two cosmonauts and American astronaut Frank Rubio.

NASA had considered Crew Dragon as an alternative ride home for Rubio but he eventually used an empty Soyuz capsule that Russia launched as a rescue craft. Rubio’s mission was extended from six months to a bit more than a year — 371 days — a record-breaking duration for an American in space.