NASA announced in late August that Boeing’s competitor SpaceX was now responsible for returning Butch Wilmore and Sunny Williams to Earth.
The successive problems faced by Starliner led to the difficult decision not to use the vehicle for the return mission to Earth.
The astronauts were supposed to spend 8 days on the International Space Station, but they will have to stay there for at least 8 months, until February 2025, to return on SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission.
Boeing has publicly stat
ed on several occasions that it is convinced its vehicle is safe.
The absence of group officials from recent NASA press conferences has raised speculation about differences with the US space agency.
tense discussions
The New York Post quoted sources familiar with the matter as saying that recent meetings between senior officials from both sides ended in arguments accompanied by shouting.
NASA’s commercial spaceflight chief Steve Stich said the meetings included “tense technical discussions,” but were not stormy.
“Every meeting involving decisions of this importance involves some form of tension,” he said.
Despite Boeing’s assurances about its expectations, the NASA team was “not comfortable” with returning the astronauts via Starliner, “due to the uncertainties surrounding the vehicle.”
Starliner is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station on Friday at around 10 p.m. GMT, before descending empty and arriving in the western United States on Saturday morning.
Ten years ago, NASA asked Boeing to build a new spacecraft, while also asking SpaceX to build another. NASA has repeatedly stressed its goal of having two spacecraft to carry astronauts, so that it would not be left helpless if one of them failed.
Elon Musk’s company has largely outpaced Boeing and has been the sole provider of astronaut transport for four years.
Accident details
On June 5, NASA astronauts launched NASA Sonny Williams and Butch Wilmore towards International Space Station On board Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft.
According to the Daily Mail, the Starliner was suffering from a leak. Helium And problems with the thrusters in the weeks leading up to the launch, and even on the day of the launch.
The spacecraft safely transported Williams and Wilmore to the International Space Station, but by the time it arrived, it had suffered further helium leaks and 5 of its 28 thrusters had failed.
Although Williams and Wilmore were originally supposed to spend only 8 days aboard, International Space Station, technical problems with their spacecraft have kept them stuck there for about 3 months now.
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