SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule to return Boeing Starliner crew to Earth

SpaceX crew Dragon capsule to return Boeing Starliner crew to Earth a SpaceX crew Dragon capsule will bring home to NASA astronauts who have remained on board the International Space Station for about 80 days because of issues plaguing the Boeing Starliner spacecraft marking a stunning turn of events for the beleaguered Aerospace giant the news comes after the space agency held a formal review on Saturday to determine whether it would deem Boeing's Starliner vehicle safe enough to return home with its crew or if space X's Work Horse crew dragons spacecraft would have to step in to save the day the Starliner vehicle which carried astronauts sunna Williams and butwell more to the space station in early June suffered setbacks with helium leaks and thrusters that abruptly stopped working on the initial leg of its first crude test flight Engineers spent weeks attempting to better understand the issues and Boeing said as recently as August 2nd that its confidence remains high that the spacecraft would be able to return Williams and will more to Earth NASA revealed during an August 7th news briefing however that discussions within the space agency about the Starliner capsule's safety had evolved prompting the federal agency to more seriously consider flying the astronauts home on a SpaceX crew Dragon vehicle which has flown about a dozen crude mission to space since 2020 on Saturday NASA administrator Bill Nelson said NASA considered its extensive experience with space flight both successful and unsuccessful when making the decision a poll of NASA representatives from across across the agency's Departments and research oversight and Development Centers was unanimous according to agency officials we've had mistakes done in the past we lost to space shuttles as a result of there not being a culture in which information could come forward Nelson said space flight is risky even at its safest and even at its most routine and the test flight by nature is neither safe nor routine SpaceX is already slated to execute a routine mission to the international space station carrying for astronauts as part of standard crew rotations aboard the orbiting laboratory but the mission called crew 9 will now be reconfigured to carry two astronauts on board instead of four that adjustment will leave two empty seats for Williams and will more to occupy on the crew9 flight home the astronauts will also join the crew9 team becoming part of the official I SS Expedition with that transition Williams and will Moore will remain on site for an additional 6 months the length of a routine mission to the space station the reassignment to crew N9 will push the Duo's return to February 2025 at the earliest Starliner however will fly home empty in early September NASA said Saturday if the UNC crude return trip goes well NASA will then be faced with a critical decision whether to Grant Starliner official certification for human space flight a step that would set up the vehicle to make routine trips to orbit despite the fact that it did not complete its Mission as intended no Boeing representatives were present at Saturday's news conference in a statement Saturday Boeing said it continues to focus first and foremost on the safety of the crew and spacecraft we are executing the mission as determined by NASA and we are preparing the spacecraft for a safe and successful uncrewed return Steve stick NASA's commercial crew program manager said Saturday that there was just a little disagreement between NASA and both in terms of the level of risk it just depends on how you evaluate the risk stick said we did it a little differently with our crew than Boeing did Nelson later added that he is 100% sure Boeing will address the issues and set up Starliner for another crude Mission at some point in the future space X's Chief Operating Officer Gwyn Shotwell also responded to the news with a post on X the social media platform formerly known as Twitter SpaceX stands ready to support at NASA however we can Shotwell said faulty thrusters five of the Starliner 28 reaction control thrusters quit working during the first stretch of Boeing's test mission all but one were eventually recovered and while Williams and will more expected to spend only 8 days in space their stay aboard the orbiting lab has already been extended by roughly 2 months as Engineers on the ground have worked to better understand the Thruster problems officials said they were able to recreate how the thrusters in space deteriorated during flight with tests on the ground the possible root cause was heat building up inside the thrusters that may be causing insulating seals to Bulch restricting the flow of propellant Boeing said separately issues with helium leaks may be the result of seals that have become degraded because of exposure to propellent Vapor according to comments from Mark napy Boeing's commercial crew program manager on July 25th still NASA initially struggled to reach a consensus on how those issues might affect the Astron Nots return from space and how much risk the problems would pose the ambiguity surrounding the level of risk is why the agency is turning to Space X and its Workhorse crew Dragon vessel to step in STI said Saturday the bottom line relative to Bringing Starliner back his there was just too much uncertainty in the prediction of the thrusters he said it was just too much risk with the crew and so we decided to pursue the UN crude path forward Starliner Rocky path NASA has repeatedly said that spacex's ability to step and highlights how the space agency intentionally designed its commercial crew program under which both Starliner and crew Dragon were developed to allow each spacecraft to serve as backup for the other we're in a kind of a new situation here and that we've got multiple options said Ken Borox associate administrator for NASA space operations mission directorate on August 7th that's something that we're going to have to deal with in the future we could find ourselves in a situation where we need to bring a SpaceX Dragon crew or a Russian saw you's crew back on a Starliner that's why we want multiple Vehicles so that we have that option Borox added still the federal agency funded space X's crew dragon and Boeing Starliner at the same time in 2014 crew dragon has already been in operation for 4 years while the Starliner program is hundreds of millions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule Boeing's development process has also been plagued by missteps for example the first Starliner test mission flown in 2019 without a creay misfired in orbit and cut the flight far short of expectations the vehicle did not ultimately dock with the space station as intended and the outcome was revealed to be a symptom of myriad software problems including a coding error that set an internal clock off by 11 hours a second un crude flight test in May 2022 uncovered additional software issues and the mission teams addressed problems with some of the vehicle's thrusters however the root cause of the Thruster trouble plaguing this crude mission was missed two years ago whether the Starliner vehicle ultimately becomes certified after its return to Earth will likely become a controversial issue which is considered to be the most dangerous leg of the mission the autonomous vehicle will have to use its thrusters to precisely Orient itself as it plunges back into Earth's thick atmosphere the pressure and friction are expected to heat the vehicle's exterior to roughly 3,000 de fahr 1,650 de C Starliner parachutes must then deploy without issue and slow down the spacecraft before triggering aags to expand and cushion The Landing if the Starliner capsule is ultimately certified it could join spacex's crew dragon in making routine trips to the space station to rotate staff currently those trips are occurring roughly every 6 months weighing the costs if the spacecraft is denied certification however it would Mark yet another blow to Boeing's already badly damaged reputation missing the mark could cost the company many millions of additional dollars on top of the roughly $1.5 billion the company has already recorded in losses on the Starliner program all of us really wanted to complete the Boeing Starliner test flight with crew and I think unanimously we're disappointed not to be able to do that Boro said Saturday but you don't want that disappointment to weigh unhealthily in your decision Boeing's cost overun have spurred recurrent rumors that Boeing may not see the Starliner program through Nelson said Saturday however that he recently spoke with boing's new CEO Kelly orberg about Starliner status I told him how well Boeing worked with our team to come to this decision Nelson said and he expressed to me an intention that they will continue to work on the problems once Starliner is back safely and that we will have our redundancy and our crude access to the space station it is not yet clear however who will shoulder the cost C of additional testing and development that may be needed to get Starliner development to the Finish Line Nelson on Saturday reiterated that its deal with Boeing is a fixed price contract which means is designed to be one lump sum and payments do not grow with delays as they do with alternative contracts such as Cost Plus however Nelson added discussions about how much Boeing is willing to pay for additional testing was not part of his conversation with the CEO I don't have the answer to that nor do I think we would have the answer Nelson said