Instead, SpaceX will bring back Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore at the end of February, lengthening their original mission from eight days to more than eight months.
After months of agitation over their safetythe new astronaut capsule Boeing has left the International Space Station bound for Earth without its crew on board.
The two NASA test pilots, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore have stayed on the ISS, which will be their home until next year. “He’s on his way home,” Williams radioed Mission Control after the Starliner undocked 260 miles above China.
The capsule’s return flight is expected to last six hours, with an overnight landing in the New Mexico desert. Williams and Wilmore were to have taken Starliner back to Earth in Junea week after taking off in it. But thruster failures and helium leaks spoiled her trip to the space station.
Starliner and the constant problems until today’s landing
In the end, NASA decided it was too risky to return the duo to Starliner. So The fully automated capsule departed with its seats empty and their blue spacesuits along with some old station equipment. SpaceXwill bring the duo back at the end of Februaryextending its original mission from eight days to more than eight months.
Boeing’s first astronaut flight caps a journey filled with delays and setbacks. After the retirement of the space shuttles more than a decade ago, NASA hired Boeing and SpaceX for orbital taxi service.
Boeing ran into so many problems on its first test flight with no one on board in 2019 that it had to do it again. The 2022 replay uncovered even more glitches and the repair bill exceeded 1,000 million dollars (901 million euros).
Even before Williams and Wilmore took off on June 5, Starliner’s propulsion system had a helium leak. The leak was small and thought to be isolated, but four more appeared after takeoff. Then five thrusters failed.
Although four of the boosters were recovered, NASA wondered if more failures could make it difficult to lower the capsule from orbit.
Boeing conducted numerous booster tests in space and on the ground over the summer and she was convinced that her spaceship could bring Wilmore and Williams home safely. But NASA did not agree and opted for SpaceX.
A minute after separating from the space station, the Starliner’s thrusters ignited as the white and blue capsule slowly drifted away. NASA Mission Control called the departure “perfect.”
A successful reentry that has destroyed the parts that failed
Flight controllers planned to conduct further firing tests of the capsule’s thrusters after undocking. Engineers suspect that the more the thrusters are fired, the hotter they become.which causes the protective gaskets to swell and obstruct the flow of propellant.**
They will not be able to examine any of the pieces; the section containing the propellants will be jettisoned just before reentry.
The re-entry was a success. She landed at 4:01 GMT in White Sand, New Mexico, with a damaged module but landing within the range of specifications thanks to the deployment of the parachutes.
Steve Stich, director of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, commented that Surely the Helium leaks are due to corrosion of some seals.
The manager defended that during the manned test mission, called CFT (Crew Flight Test), many parts of the flight went very well and that he does not believe that a new design for the thruster system is necessary.
ADVERTISINGNext steps about Starliner and the crew it has left on the Station
Once Startliner successfully landed NASA had a press conference in which they admitted questions about what the next steps will be and how long the crew that took the Boeing capsule to the International Space Station will stay.
Apparently everything indicates that of 8 days on the ISS, after the capsule problemsthey will spend up to 8 months up there.
