NASA Picks SpaceX to Rescue Astronauts Marooned in Space

 

NASA will call on SpaceX to bring home two astronauts who have been stuck on the International Space Station since early June after their Boeing spacecraft ran into several problems midflight, the agency said Saturday.

The decision for astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to hitch a ride back to Earth on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, rather than on the Boeing Starliner spacecraft that they rode into orbit, puts to rest months of speculation and tension within the space agency over how — and when — the two crew members could safely return. The mission was planned to last about eight days.

The Starliner drama has been a major setback for Boeing's space ambitions, adding to years of struggle to get the capsule off the ground and keep up with rival company SpaceX. Even before Wilmore and Williams launched in June, the Starliner program was more than $1.5 billion over budget and years behind schedule.

Top NASA officials, including Administrator Bill Nelson, gathered Saturday in Houston to conduct a formal review based on the results of tests done in orbit and on the ground. The decision to go with SpaceX was subsequently announced in a news briefing held at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

While the agency has finally settled on how to bring the astronauts back, their return trip will not be immediate. Instead, Wilmore and Williams will remain at the space station for about six more months before flying home in February.

NASA said it will free up two seats on an upcoming SpaceX launch, known as Crew-9, that will be taking a new rotation of space station crew members to the orbiting outpost. By transporting two astronauts instead of the planned four, Wilmore and Williams will be able to fly back in the open seats at the end of the Crew-9 mission in February.

The Crew-9 flight is currently scheduled to lift off on Sept. 24 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The beleaguered Starliner capsule, meanwhile, will journey back to Earth without a crew, according to NASA.

NASA’s uncertainty in recent weeks stood in stark contrast to the public messaging from Boeing. The aerospace company has said that tests done in orbit and on the ground indicated that the Starliner capsule was safe to bring the astronauts home.

Over the past month, Boeing officials have not taken part in news briefings hosted by NASA to discuss the Starliner mission. Boeing was publishing details of the flight’s status on the company’s website, but there have been no mission updates posted since Aug. 2. In that statement from earlier this month, Boeing said it “remains confident in the Starliner spacecraft and its ability to return safely with crew.”

Wilmore and Williams arrived at the space station on June 6. As they were approaching the orbiting outpost, five of Starliner’s thrusters malfunctioned, causing a nearly hourlong delay in the docking process. Separately, mission managers also detected helium leaking from the capsule’s propulsion system — an issue that was known prior to the spacecraft’s launch but appeared to worsen during the flight.

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft

Five of Starliner’s reaction control system thrusters — which are used to move the capsule around in orbit — malfunctioned as it was approaching the International Space Station. Helium has also been leaking in the spacecraft’s propulsion system.

Diagram of a Boeing Starliner

SPACECRAFT’S SERVICE MODULE

Ascent cover

Forward heat shield

Reusable crew module

Base heat shield

Launch abort engines

Solar array

Reaction control system thrusters, orbital maneuvering and altitude control thrusters

The malfunctioning thrusters and helium leaks are here.

Source: Boeing

Graphic: JoElla Carman and Jiachuan Wu / NBC News

Engineers from NASA and Boeing spent weeks analyzing the problems using a test engine that was built for future Starliner flights. Mission managers also conducted two “hot fire tests” in space, which involved firing the capsule’s thrusters in short bursts while it remained docked at the space station.

Wilmore and Williams launched to the International Space Station on June 5 on the first crewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule. The mission, which was meant to last just over a week, was a crucial test flight for Boeing, serving as the last major step before NASA could certify the Starliner spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the space station regularly.

It’s unclear how NASA will proceed with the certification process now, including how the space agency will evaluate Starliner’s performance on the crewed test flight.

SpaceX, meanwhile, has been ferrying NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station since 2020.

Both Boeing and SpaceX developed their space capsules as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, an initiative that started in 2011 to support private companies in building new space vehicles to take astronauts to low-Earth orbit following the retirement of the agency’s space shuttles.

After being stranded on the International Space Station since June, two astronaut castaways may still be months away from returning to Earth—in part because of incompatible space suits.

The two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, have had to extend what was supposed to be an eight-day trip on the ISS, because of a helium leak and thruster malfunctions on their Boeing-made Starliner spacecraft. NASA and Boeing are testing to see if it’s safe for the astronauts to return on the Boeing Starliner, but are also considering alternatives given the possible risks.

NASA has yet to make a decision, but one of those alternatives includes sending the astronauts home on a Dragon spacecraft, manufactured by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, that is already docked at the station, a representative from the space agency said during a press conference last week, Ars Technica reported. 

Yet, that approach comes with complications, as explained by Swapna Krishna, the journalist behind the space-themed YouTube channel Ad Astra. If NASA chose that option, Wilmore and Williams would be the fifth and sixth astronauts on a spacecraft that’s limited to four passengers. And because their Starliner suits aren’t compatible with the Dragon spacecraft, they would have to return to Earth without suits on, which isn’t inherently dangerous, but offers them less protection in case something goes wrong with the capsule.

The differing suit designs and plugs for the Starliner and Dragon spacecraft come down to a new process for commercial crewed space missions that NASA has implemented. Previously, NASA was extremely involved in the manufacture and testing of spacecraft and space suits. 

Yet since the 2010s when NASA developed the commercial crew program, it has given private companies more freedom in how they develop and manufacture equipment for the agency, including space suits, as long as it meets broad safety requirements. For instance, NASA didn’t specify that space suits for each commercial spacecraft need to be cross-compatible with one another. In fact, having two different suit designs for each spacecraft could also be beneficial, according to Krishna.

“If the suits used the same type of plug, and some sort of flaw was found within that plug or some other sort of standardized connector, it would ground both spacecraft,” she said in a Sunday video.

A spokesperson for Boeing referred a request for comment to NASA. NASA and SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment. NASA has said the astronauts are not “stranded” on the ISS.

The Boeing Starliner rocket contains astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.

Paul Hennessy—Anadolu/Getty Images

Another alternative is sending the astronauts home on a different Dragon spacecraft that’s set to reach the ISS in September. This ship could reach the space station with only two of its usual four crew members and could send up extra (Dragon-compatible) space suits, which would allow Wilmore and Williams to return to Earth fully suited in the two unfilled seats. 

But if NASA chose this alternative, the Starliner ship that the astronauts originally flew in would have to undock and return to Earth autonomously to make room for the Dragon spacecraft arriving in September, and Boeing has said it might not be able to do that. Because of the way Boeing’s contract with NASA is structured, the company has had to absorb the extra costs associated with the technical failures of its Starliner. The company has already taken about $1.6 billion in charges on its Starliner program.

If the Starliner left the space station without a crew, the astronauts on the ISS would also have to install two extra seats on the remaining Dragon spacecraft until the next Dragon arrives, because the remaining docked ship must provide enough seats to accommodate all of the NASA astronauts in case of an emergency.

The marooned astronauts would need to take the place of the two astronauts pulled from the Dragon mission to accommodate them, which would keep them aboard the ISS until the regular rotation ends in February 2025. That would mean turning what was supposed to be just over a weeklong mission into eight months. Although both astronauts have completed longer missions on the ISS before, those were filled with less uncertainty. Wilmore’s wife told a CBS station in Knoxville that she is preparing for her husband to miss Christmas and the couple’s 30th wedding anniversary.