It has been officially decided that the crew members who were unable to return home due to a malfunction of the Boeing spacecraft 'Starliner' will return on SpaceX's 'Crew Dragon'


by NASA

It has been officially decided that the two astronauts whose return from the International Space Station (ISS) has been postponed due to a malfunction of the Boeing manned spacecraft '

CST-100 (Starliner) ' will return on SpaceX's spacecraft ' Crew Dragon .' The Starliner will return to Earth unmanned and is scheduled to land in the United States in September 2024.

NASA Decides to Bring Starliner Spacecraft Back to Earth Without Crew - NASA
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-decides-to-bring-starliner-spacecraft-back-to-earth-without-crew/

Boeing Starliner astronauts will return home on a SpaceX Dragon in 2025, NASA confirms | Space
https://www.space.com/nasa-boeing-starliner-astronauts-will-return-on-spacex-dragon-2025

It's official: NASA calls on Crew Dragon to rescue the Starliner astronauts | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/08/its-official-nasa-calls-on-crew-dragon-to-rescue-the-starliner-astronauts/

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams arrived at the ISS on the Starliner, which was launched as a manned test flight in June 2024. The Starliner experienced helium leaks and thruster problems in orbit, causing the two astronauts to extend their stay at the ISS by more than two months.

Astronauts may not be able to return from the International Space Station on a mission that was originally supposed to last eight days, and their stay may be postponed until up to 2025 - GIGAZINE



As expected, Wilmore and Williams will officially remain on the ISS as part of the Expedition 71/72 crew until February 2025, after which they will return aboard the Crew Dragon with the two crew members assigned to the SpaceX Crew 9 mission. The Crew Dragon for the Expedition 71/72 crew is scheduled to launch after September 24, 2024, and NASA and SpaceX are currently reconfiguring the Crew Dragon's seats and adjusting the cargo manifest to accommodate Wilmore and Williams' additional luggage and special space suits.


by NASA

The Starliner is scheduled to depart unmanned from the ISS in early September 2024, perform a 'safe and controlled autonomous re-entry,' and land at White Sands Spaceport in New Mexico, USA.

According to NASA, five of the 28 reaction control thrusters were found to be malfunctioning when Starliner docked with the ISS. Steve Stich, director of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, commented, 'We're dealing with very complex problems with thrusters. It's hard to predict how they're going to perform, and it's hard to predict the temperature. If we had a model, if we had a way to accurately predict how the thrusters would work from undocking to the deorbit burn to the separation sequence, I think we would have taken different actions, but the risk was too great.'


by NASA

NASA Administrator

Bill Nelson , referring to the 1986 Challenger explosion and the 2003 Columbia breakup during his time as a member of Congress, said, 'In the Challenger disaster, even the engineers were pleading with management to stop the launch because of the cold, but that information was never made public. And in the case of Columbia, the hardware issues were not raised because of a certain culture that encourages this kind of data omission. NASA has worked hard ever since to create an atmosphere that encourages people to come forward and speak their minds, and I think this is a great example of that,' he said, explaining the decision to return the Starliner unmanned.

According to Ken Bowersox, deputy administrator for NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate, NASA officials unanimously supported the Starliner's unmanned return, but Boeing executives, who developed the Starliner, said they were 'prepared to return a crew member aboard the Starliner.'


by NASA

'We look forward to further identifying the root causes and making design improvements to ensure Boeing's Starliner is an essential component of reliable crew access to the ISS,' Nelson said. 'Our core value is safety, and it is our North Star.'

'Decisions like these are never easy, but I applaud the NASA and Boeing teams for their thorough analysis, transparent discussions and focus on safety during this crewed test flight,' said Deputy Administrator Bowersox. 'We learned a lot about the spacecraft during the journey to the ISS and during docked operations. We also will continue to collect more data on Starliner during its uncrewed return and refine the system for future flights to the ISS.'

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