Nasa: Astronauts stuck in orbit will return in February with a SpaceX crew rather than a Boeing Starliner | Nasa

NASA has decided that the two astronauts currently stuck on the International Space Station will return next February on a SpaceX-manned Dragon flight, with two seats made available for Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore.

Space agency officials said there was “too much uncertainty” for the astronauts to return on the Boeing Starliner spacecraft that brought them to the space station. The capsule has been experiencing problems after it developed small leaks and some of its engines failed.

The announcement came after an “agency-level review” on Saturday, which was also attended by Bill Nelson, the head of the agency.

“NASA has decided that Butch and Suni will return next February with (SpaceX’s) Crew-9 and that Starliner will return uncrewed,” Nelson said in a press conference on Saturday.

“I want you to know that Boeing has worked very hard with NASA to obtain the necessary data to make this decision. We want to better understand the root causes and understand the design improvements so that the Boeing Starliner will be an important part of our assured access to the ISS for our crew,” he added.

“Spaceflight is risky, even in its safest and most routine forms, and a test flight is inherently neither safe nor routine. Therefore, the decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring the Boeing Starliner home uncrewed is the result of a commitment to safety,” Nelson continued.

Williams and Wilmore, two experienced astronauts, arrived at the ISS on June 6 as part of a crucial test of the Starliner before it can receive NASA approval for routine flights. But the planned eight-day mission turned into a months-long stay for Williams and Wilmore after technical problems arose, including a failure of the reaction control thrusters during the Starliner’s first docking attempt.

Four of the spacecraft’s five failed engines have now been reactivated in orbit, the Associated Press reported. The engines are crucial to allowing the spacecraft to move away from the ISS after undocking and to keep the capsule in the correct position for deorbiting.

On August 2, Boeing said in a blog post that it had completed “extensive testing of its propulsion system in space and on the ground.” The struggling manufacturer, which is struggling to compete with SpaceX and has incurred $1.6 billion in losses on the Starliner program, added: “Testing confirmed that 27 of 28 reaction control system (RCS) engines are intact and fully operational again. The Starliner propulsion system is also redundant and helium levels remain stable.”

Steve Stich, program manager for NASA’s commercial crew program, described the decision to return the Starliner unmanned in September on Saturday: “The bottom line with regard to the return of the Starliner is … that there were simply too many uncertainties in predicting the engines.”

“If we had a model, if we had a way to predict exactly what the engines would do during undocking and throughout the deorbit burn and during the separation sequence, I think we would have done things differently. But when we looked at the data and looked at the potential for engine failures with a crew on board … the risk with the crew was just too great,” Stich added.

While they wait on the ISS to join the SpaceX crew in February next year, Williams and Wilmore will perform maintenance on the science station, among other research tasks, according to Dana Weigel, NASA’s ISS program manager.

“They will conduct the SpaceX 31 research and cargo mission,” Weigel said on Saturday, referring to the commercial supply mission to the ISS.

“Towards the end of their expedition, we may do a few more spacewalks for them. Since they’ve been up there, they’ve been a welcome helping hand. They’ve already put in about 100 hours of work on 42 different experiments and helped us with some of the important station maintenance we’ve had on board,” she added.

When asked how NASA plans to restore trust in Boeing, NASA Deputy Director Jim Free responded, “I don’t think it’s a trust issue at all. I don’t think we’re restoring trust. I think we look at the data and look at the data and the uncertainties associated with it differently than Boeing does. It’s not a question of trust. It’s our technical expertise and our experience that we have to balance.”

Ken Bowersox, deputy director of NASA’s Space Operations Directorate, acknowledged the “tense discussions” between NASA and Boeing, adding: “People are emotionally attached to both options, and that allows for a healthy discourse. But after that, you have to do something to hold the team together, to recover it and get it ready for the next issue, and I admit we still have some work to do there.”

According to NASA, SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission will launch no earlier than September 24.

Currently, NASA and SpaceX are working on several things before launch, including reconfiguring the seats on the Crew-9 Dragon and adjusting the cargo manifest to carry additional cargo and personal items, as well as Dragon-specific spacesuits for Wilmore and Williams.