NASA Starliner Latest: Stranded Sunita Williams Situation As It Happened | SpaceX Rescue

you know our mission is primarily a test mission is really to check out uh flying the spacecraft to the space station docking and then checking it out while it's docked to make sure that it could be a safe haven it can remain docked to the space station for a number of months so there's a lot of activities that are uh that we will be doing working with that um if we end up staying for a little bit longer and we get all of our checks in the block done for our spacecraft we'll be happy to help out the the guys who are up there on the ISS for whatever they're doing um I think Butch and I both like doing maintenance you know we are we're tool guys and uh so if there's anything that needs to happen for the space station we are ready to uh to do that um but our main goal for this spacecraft is really uh testing it out shaking it out um not only going to the space station docking but also then coming home so we it almost feels unreal like we've had a couple launch dates and we've been like okay we're ready to go but now it's like heck five five days and uh friends of mine are doing their countdown in their classrooms and that's like we're sharing this with so many people which means it is actually finally real and I I sort of have to pinch myself a little bit to understand where actually where we're going toward the end of the day yesterday uh I would say it was around 4:30 local time here in Houston after they had performed some of the demos we noticed a little bit of increase in the helium leak rate that we talked about pre-launch um we could see at the tank level when the system is opened essentially you're bleeding helium from the tank all through the flight and we could see that that leak rate was a little higher than than we uh had thought pre-flight so we took a action that already exists in the procedures the flight Ops Team working with the crew isolated all the manifolds then we did the final what we call the TPI burn that's a burn that puts us on intercept with the space station and at that point we started to see some loss of some of the reaction control system thrusters in uh various um dog houses um these were all AF facing jets that we lost we don't necessarily understand exactly why we lost these AF Jets T2 so we ended up losing a total of five thrusters based on what you know today how confident are you that the Starliner will get you home safely given the known helium leaks and the earlier Thruster issues and as test pilots are you satisfied you have a workable backup procedures in place if the normal deorbit plan cannot be executed for some reason thanks yeah thank you for that's a good question Bill obviously um yes I'll say yes to all of those questions we're absolutely confident we've already as Sunny mentioned for Safe Haven we had that uh test not just the the the test but also to to do it for real when we had that possible conjunction a few weeks ago and we got in Starliner we were ready to go everything's in place as far as what we know now that's a that is a good point we are actually doing Thruster testing as we speak at White Sands New Mexico going through that process uh trying to replicate what we saw on that flight day two when we were Rond deing and we we're going to learn from that and we're going to incorporate new processes new procedures that we will uh employ if necessary so obviously uh right now we are ready uh we will be ready then unless the the data shows otherwise but right now based on what we know we are absolutely ready Mara you know we we've been through a lot of simulations for this spacecraft to you know go through all sorts of iterations of failures and I think where we are right now and what we know right now and how the spacecraft flew as it was coming to do the docking as Butch described um I I feel confident that if we had to if there was a problem with the International Space Station we can get in our spacecraft and we can undock talk to our team and figure out the best way to come home um yeah we've like I said we've practiced a lot so I have a feeling I have a a real good feeling in my heart that uh this spacecraft will will bring us home no problem so I have confidence Butch have confidence um we're here on the space station with our safe haven of Starlight yeah you we are having a great time here on ISS you know Butch and I have been up here before and it feels like coming back home it feels good to float around it feels good to be in space and work up here with the International Space Station team so yeah it's great to be up here so I'm not complaining Butch isn't complaining that we're here for a couple weeks um extra weeks I'll just reiterate again this is a test flight we were expecting to find some things and so we are finding stuff and we're we're correcting it and making changes making updates with our control team NASA has decided that but and sunny will return with crew 9 next February uh and that Starliner uh will return uncrewed and the specifics in the schedule will be discussed momentarily space flight is risky even at its saf safest and even at its most routine and a test flight by nature is neither safe nor routine and so the decision to keep Butch and sunny aboard the International Space Station and bring the Boeing Starliner home uncrewed is a result of a commitment to safety our core value is safety and it is our North Star are [Music] [Music]