After meetings, briefings and discussions, finally there is a first certainty for Butch Wilmore And Suni Williams, the two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station. Arrived on board from Starliner Of Boeing – who had problems – will return thanks to a Crew Dragon spaceship SpaceXElon Musk’s space colossus. The announcement came from NASA: “After an extensive review by experts across the agency” the Starliner will return “without a crew. The return to Earth of astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams is scheduled for next spring”
The two astronauts were supposed to be away from home and Earth for eight days. A space mission that, at this point, will last much longer. The Boeing space taxi launched in June and still docked at the International Space Station has technical problems that prevent Wilmore and Williams from taking off again. “Space flight is risky, even when it is safest and most routine. A test flight, by its very nature, is neither safe nor routine. The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and to bring Boeing’s Starliner home without a crew It is the result of our commitment to safety: our core value and our North Star,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “I am grateful to the teams at NASA and Boeing for their incredible, painstaking work.”
NASA and Boeing, as stated in the note from the US space agency, “have identified helium leaks and problems with the reaction control thrusters of the spacecraft on June 6, as Starliner approached the space station. Since then, engineering teams have completed a significant amount of work, including reviewing a data set, conducting in-flight and ground tests, conducting independent reviews with agency propulsion experts, and developing various reentry contingency plans. Uncertainty and lack of consensus among experts do not meet the agency’s safety and performance requirements for human spaceflight, prompting NASA leadership to transition astronauts to the Crew-9 mission. Decisions like this are never easy, but I want to commend the NASA and Boeing teams for their thorough analysis, transparent discussions, and focus on safety during the Crew Flight Test,” he said. Ken Bowersox, associate administrator of NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate. “We learned a lot about the spacecraft during the flight to the station and docking operations. We will also continue to collect more data on Starliner during uncrewed reentry and improve the system for future flights to the space station.”
“The SpaceX Crew-9 mission, initially planned with a four-member crew, will be launched no earlier than Tuesday 24 September. The agency will share more information about the Crew-9 crew as details are finalized. NASA and SpaceX – the release continues – are currently working on several aspects before the launch, including the seat reconfiguration of the Dragon Crew-9 and the adjustment of the cargo manifest to carry additional cargo, personal effects, and Dragon-specific space suits for Wilmore and Williams. Additionally, for the launch of Crew-9, NASA and SpaceX will use the new facilities at Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral in Florida, providing greater operational flexibility than NASA’s planned launch of Europa Clipper.”
