Boeing Starliner Failure Strands Two Astronauts in Low Earth Orbit | Space Station Incident Analysis

hello this is Dr Grande today's question is can I analyze the case of the astronauts stranded on the International Space Station just a reminder I'm not diagnosing anybody in this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoyed this video please like it subscribe to my channel and consider supporting me on patreon I will put the link to patreon in the description for this video first I'll look at the background of this case move to the timeline of the incident that offer my analysis this case involves the International Space Station as well as two American astronauts Butch Wilmore and sunny Williams the International Space Station is a project involving the collaboration of five space agencies including NASA construction on the station started in 1998 and it has been continuously occupied since November 2000 normally seven crew members live and work in the facility the space station is 30 156 ft long and comprises 18 pressurized modules as well as an integrated truss structure which contains solar rays and thermal radiators the modules serve various purposes like Research Laboratories docking facilities living quarters and environmental control systems the last module arrived at the station in 2011 the space station maintains a low earth orbit and travels at about 17,000 miles per hour it completes 16 orbits of the planet Earth every 24 hours and maintains an altitude of about 250 Mi the mass of the station is 925,000 lb and it has 13,000 cubic feet of habitable volume it contains six sleeping quarters two bathrooms and a gym the gravity in the space station is 90% of Earth's gravity but the crew members experience weightlessness because the station is always in a state of Freefall this is due to the characteristics of its orbit the International Space Station fulfills many purposes one important function is to perform experiments to advance Fields like meteorology astronomy and medicine for example crew members have run experiments to determine how being in space affects the human body like what type of muscle atropy and bone loss could be expected crew members typically spend a maximum of 6 months aboard the station at a time now moving to the two astronauts involved in this case Barry Eugene Wilmore was born on December 29 1962 and raised in Tennessee he goes by the name Butch he studied electrical engineering and Aviation and served as a pilot in the Navy where he flew jet aircraft including the F-18 Hornet in 2000 which started working as a pilot from NASA in 2009 he piloted the space shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Station in 2014 he spent 167 days aboard the space station Sita Williams was born on September 19 1965 in Ohio but was raised in Massachusetts she goes by the name Sunny she studied Engineering Management and served in the Navy as a helicopter pilot Sunny joined NASA in 1998 she traveled to the International Space Station in 2006 and stayed there for 4 months she returned to the station for another 4 months in 2012 in 2015 she joined the commercial space flight program at Nasa and trained with Boeing and SpaceX now moving to the timeline of the incident on June 5 2024 Butch Wilmore and sunny Williams launched on a mission to the International Space Station in the Boeing Starliner spacecraft 2 the Starliner is a spacecraft comprising a capsule and a service module it was designed to transport crew members into low orbit for example taking them to and from the International Space Station Starliner is 15 ft in diameter and can hold up to seven crew members on this particular trip the only crew members aboard were Butch and sunny the mission with these two astronauts was only supposed to take 8 days but various problems were encountered when the Starliner was maneuvering to die with the space station five of its 28 reaction control system thrusters stopped working eventually four of the thrusters came back online but this failure was disconcerting mostly because of the dying in space part in addition to the Thruster problems helium leaks developed aboard the capsule and the cooling system used too much water despite the adversity Starliner managed to dock with the space station with no fatalities the failures were quite frightening two NASA engineers and they became concerned about the safe operation of the spacecraft it remained docked at the space station as officials contemplated their options for returning the astronauts to Earth on August 24 2024 NASA decided to bring the Starliner back without the crew even though Boeing said it was safe for the astronauts to be on board Starliner must come back so a docking port will be available on the space station the spacecraft SpaceX Dragon crew 9 will be arriving at the station in September 2024 as part of a mission that was already scheduled Butch and sunny are going to join that mission and return on crew 9 in February 2025 at the earliest so an 8-day Mission has transformed into an 8-month Mission crew 9 will carry two astronauts to the Space Station instead of four so two seats will be available for Butch and sunny for the return trip the SpaceX Dragon vehicle currently docked at the space station Crew 8 will be temporarily reconfigured to accommodate six crew members in case there is an emergency which necessitates evacuation NASA administrator Bill Nelson indicated that the agency considered both successful and unsuccessful experiences with space flight when making the decision he said quote we have had mistakes done in the past we lost two space shuttles as a result of there not being a culture in which information could come forward space flight is risky even at its safest and even at its most routine and a test flight by nature is neither safe nor routine unquote Bill Nelson was referring to the 1986 loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger which exploded right after liftoff and the 2003 loss of Colombia which was destroyed during reentry investigations into these disasters concluded they were caused by a culture that did not prioritize safety at the time I'm making this video the astronauts Butch and sunny continued to enjoy their visit to the space station as they conduct scientific experiments now moving to my analysis here are my thoughts on a few areas that stood out to be in this case item number one what went wrong with the Boeing Starliner as I mentioned Starliner ran into three problems during the mission that brought Butch and sunny to the space station Thruster failure helium leaks and the cooling system used too much water even after examining the available data NASA could not figure out what caused these failures one theory is that heat could have built up inside the thrusters which caused seals to bulge this in turn restricted the flow of propellant as far as the helium leaks perhaps the tanks became degraded because of exposure to propellent Vapor it's not clear what could have caused the cooling system problem NASA will probably figure everything out later when they get the spacecraft back on Earth but in the meantime they didn't feel comfortable with the astronauts returning in that vehicle the commercial crew manager for NASA said there was just a little bit of disagreement between NASA and boing in terms of the level of risk he said quote it just depends on how you evaluate the risk we did it a little differently with our crew than Bo did unquote the margin of error during re-entry is very small the exterior of the capsule Heats to 3000° F the thrusters which of course failed on the trip to the space station must work precisely to orient the spacecraft for re-entry it is reasonable to believe NASA made the correct decision item number two this Starliner Mission represents just one in a series of failures for the vehicle NASA funded both Boeing and SpaceX at the same time although for different amounts of money money Boeing received $4.2 billion while the contract for SpaceX was worth $2.6 billion another area where there is a difference between the two companies is performance SpaceX crew dragon has been in operation since 2020 whereas Boeing Starliner is years behind schedule hundreds of millions of dollars over budget and is still not certified to transport crew members into low orbit the first Starliner test mission was in December 2019 there was no crew on board the vehicle misfired in orbit and did not make it to the space station numerous problems were found with the software including an error that set the clock off by 11 hours the spacecraft was grounded for 2 and 1/2 years after this due in part to faulty vows in May 2022 a second uncrewed flight revealed more problems with the software and there were difficulties with the thrusters after after this problems were found with the parachute and it was discovered that highly flammable tape had been used throughout the spacecraft Starliner was supposed to take off in May 2024 for the first crude flight test but valve problems delayed the launch a helium tank in the propulsion system delayed the launch again as I mentioned Starliner finally launched on June 5 2024 only to have problems that ultimately Stranded the astronauts if has denies Boeing certification for crude missions the financial impact will be devastating Boeing has already lost 1.6 billion on the program furthermore Boeing has now been embarrassed by the exceptional performance of SpaceX a company that successfully completed the mission boing failed to complete and did it for less money bo didn't need any more bad press for example they had already attracted negative attention from the performance of the 7 37 Max airliner two crashes of this aircraft one in 2018 and one in 2019 killed a total of 346 people and in 2024 a 737 Max experienced explosive decompression when it lost an incorrectly installed door plug SpaceX may continue to be victorious over Boeing in the future as well at least when it comes to space travel the $800 million contract to incinerate the space station in 2031 was awarded to SpaceX they are going to build a deorbit vehicle which will push the space station to its fiery demise in the Earth's atmosphere it is ironic that Boeing couldn't even get this contract even though they have proven to be pretty good at destroying things now moving to my final item number three what mental health factors could come into play as far as the stranded astronauts spending time on the space station is stress inducing for for many reasons for example astronauts Miss events in the lives of their family members and feel isolated they are constantly being watched the space station is surprisingly noisy which interferes with sleep the conditions are cramped not all the crew members speak the same language and the work they perform is difficult research has shown that astronauts who stay in space for several months experience cognitive decline their perception of motion ability to judge distance and manual dexterity become degraded they often feel like they are upside down and experience confusion caused by weightlessness many years ago a cosmonaut recorded an entry in his diary about spending a lot of time in a different space station saying quote all the conditions necessary for murder are met if you shut two men in a cabin measuring 18 ft by 20 and leave them together for 2 months unquote as if all these problems are not worrisome enough living in the space station comes with constant mortal danger instant death can come about through many different ways including fire explosive decompression collision with space debris unexpected medical problems toxic gas leaks radiation exposure and of course by an astronaut losing their grip on reality and committing homicide death is never far away many people love to watch the crew members during their adventures in the space station but the Grim Reaper has season tickets despite all these concerns I would be very surprised if Butch and sunny had any significant mental health concerns due to their Extended Stay most astronauts are fearless sensation seeking cool Under Pressure courageous emotionally stable and desperately desire to be in space they were aware of the risks and they signed up anyway Nobody ends up being an astronaut by accident it's not like they walked into NASA and applied to work in the finance department or with maintenance and found themselves in a spacecraft astronauts are not individuals who failed to qualify for any other job therefore they were stuck going to the space station people who became astronauts wanted to be astronauts there's a tremendous amount of competition for that job for example Butch Wilmore applied four times before being accepted some might argue that in addition to enjoying space the overtime for 8 months will be out of this world unfortunately for the astronauts they are government employees based on their years of service they probably make somewhere between 100 and $140,000 a year this is a lot of money for a job on the ground but doesn't seem exceptionally high for risking one's life in space even so I would be surprised if Butch and sunny cared too much about the money I imagine they would do the job for free those are my thoughts about the incident with with the International Space Station please put any opinions and thoughts in the comment section they consistently generate an interesting dialogue as always I hope you found my analysis of this topic to be informative thanks for watching