Boeing, we have a problem.
The return to Earth of the two astronauts aboard NASA’s troubled Starliner orbital mission was delayed for the third time on Saturday. While Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are resting aboard the International Space Station, engineers on Earth are racing against time to solve the spacecraft’s numerous problems.
Officials say they have 45 days to bring them back.
The Starliner spacecraft’s return module is docked to the ISS’s Harmony module, but Harmony’s limited fuel reserves mean the window for a safe return flight is becoming increasingly narrow, officials said.
Wilmore and Williams were scheduled to return on June 13 after a week on the International Space Station.
But problems such as Starliner’s five helium leaks have kept it at that level.
Starliner’s problems included the sudden failure of five thrusters during flight and a series of helium leaks. CNN reported.
X posters slammed Boeing and called on Elon Musk to rescue the astronauts in one of his SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.
“How dangerous is Boeing’s Starliner? SpaceX may need to rescue astronauts from the ISS” I have written Someone with the X handle @NONbiasedly.
“The Boeing Starliner is literally disintegrating in space right now” Captain Coronado wrote:
“Death Trap nearly killed two astronauts during takeoff and transfer to the International Space Station. Boeing’s mismanagement has proven extremely dangerous!!”
Some felt the situation was not as serious as it seemed.
Space expert Jonathan McDowell He told the Post that the situation may not be as dangerous as some think.
“We have a lot of thrusters, so if we lose a few it’s OK, but it’s still a propulsion system and we need to understand everything that’s going on,” he said.
“They want to make sure these little issues aren’t obscuring bigger issues.”
McDowell said that in a worst-case scenario, astronauts would have to wait until Musk’s Dragon spacecraft travels to the International Space Station as scheduled in August.
After years of delays and one last-minute cancellation, Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft finally took off on its first crewed flight from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on June 5.
But during the 25-hour flight, engineers recorded five separate Helium leak The incidents involve failures of the craft’s thrusters, which are part of Starliner’s propulsion system, and five thrusters in the reaction control system.
“We discovered that our helium system was not functioning as designed,” Mark Nappi, Boeing’s Starliner program manager, said Tuesday.
“It’s manageable, but it’s still not working as designed, so that needs to be addressed.”
Engineers aren’t sure what’s causing the problem.