Starliner Is Back on Earth, but Its Crew Remains in Space. What’s Next for Boeing and NASA?

Boeing’s unit transport abstraction capsule, the Starliner, returned to Earth without its two-person crew close aft midnight Eastern clip connected Sept. 7, 2024. Its remotely piloted instrumentality marked the extremity of a fraught trial formation to the International Space Station which near 2 astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams, connected the presumption for months longer than intended aft thruster failures led NASA to deem the capsule unsafe to aviator back.

Wilmore and Williams volition enactment connected the International Space Station until February 2025, erstwhile they’ll instrumentality to Earth on a SpaceX Dragon capsule.

The Conversation U.S. asked erstwhile commandant of the International Space Station Michael Fossum astir NASA’s determination to instrumentality the trade uncrewed, the aboriginal of the Starliner programme and its crew’s extended enactment astatine the abstraction station.

What does this determination mean for NASA?

NASA awarded contracts to some Boeing and SpaceX successful 2014 to supply unit transport vehicles to the International Space Station via the Commercial Crew Program. At the commencement of the program, astir bets were connected Boeing to instrumentality the lead, due to the fact that of its extended aerospace experience.

However, SpaceX moved precise rapidly with its caller rocket, the Falcon 9, and its cargo ship, Dragon. While they suffered immoderate aboriginal failures during testing, they aggressively built, tested and learned from each failure. In 2020, SpaceX successfully launched its archetypal trial unit to the International Space Station.

Meanwhile, Boeing struggled done immoderate improvement setbacks. The result of this archetypal trial formation is simply a immense disappointment for Boeing and NASA. But NASA enactment has expressed its enactment for Boeing, and galore experts, including me, judge it remains successful the agency’s champion interest to person much than 1 American unit motorboat strategy to enactment continued quality abstraction operations.

NASA is besides continuing its exchange concern with Russia. This concern provides the bureau with aggregate ways to get unit members to and from the abstraction station.

As abstraction presumption operations continue, NASA and its partners person capable options to get radical to and from the presumption that they’ll ever person the indispensable unit connected the station—even if determination are motorboat disruptions for immoderate 1 of the susceptible crewed vehicles. Having Starliner arsenic an enactment volition assistance with that redundancy.

What does this determination mean for Boeing?

I bash deliberation Boeing’s estimation is going to yet suffer. The institution is going head-to-head with SpaceX. Now, the SpaceX Dragon unit spacecraft has respective flights nether its belt. It has proven a reliable mode to get to and from the abstraction station.

It’s important to retrieve that this was a trial formation for Starliner. Of course, the programme managers privation each trial formation to tally perfectly, but you can’t expect each imaginable occupation done crushed testing. Unsurprisingly, immoderate problems cropped up—you expect them successful a trial flight.

The abstraction situation is unforgiving. A tiny occupation tin go catastrophic successful zero gravity. It’s hard to replicate these situations connected the ground.

The exertion SpaceX and Boeing usage is besides radically different from the benignant of capsule exertion utilized successful the aboriginal days of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs.

NASA has evolved and made strategical moves to beforehand its ngo implicit the past 2 decades. The bureau has leaned into its bequest of reasoning extracurricular the box. It was an innovative determination to interruption from contented and leverage commercialized competitors to beforehand the program. NASA gave the companies a acceptable of requirements and near it up to them to fig retired however they would conscionable them.

What does this determination mean for Starliner’s crew?

I cognize Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams arsenic rock-solid professionals, and I judge their archetypal thoughts are astir completing their ngo safely. They are some highly experienced astronauts with erstwhile long-duration abstraction presumption experience. I’m definite they are taking this successful stride.

Prior to joining NASA, Williams was a Naval aviator and Wilmore a combat veteran, truthful these 2 cognize however to look hazard and execute their missions. This benignant of unfavorable result is ever a anticipation successful a trial mission. I americium definite they are leaning guardant with a affirmative cognition and using their bonus clip successful space to beforehand science, exertion and abstraction exploration.

Their families enarthrosis the bigger impact. They were prepared to invited the unit location successful little than 2 weeks and present indispensable set to unexpectedly being isolated for 8 months.

Right now, NASA is dealing with a ripple effect, with much astronauts than expected connected the abstraction station. More radical means much consumables – similar nutrient and covering – required. The abstraction presumption has supported a ample unit for abbreviated periods successful the past, but with 9 unit members connected committee today, the systems person to enactment harder to purify recycled drinking water, generate oxygen and region c dioxide from their atmosphere.

Wilmore and Williams are besides consuming food, and they didn’t get with the apparel and different idiosyncratic supplies they needed for an eight-month stay, truthful NASA has already started expanding those deliveries connected cargo ships.

What does this determination mean for the future?

Human spaceflight is excruciatingly hard and relentlessly unforgiving. A cardinal things indispensable spell close to person a palmy mission. It’s intolerable to afloat recognize the show of systems successful a microgravity situation until they’re tested successful space.

NASA has had galore failures and near-misses successful the quest to enactment Americans connected the Moon. They mislaid the Apollo 1 unit successful a fire during a preflight test. They launched the archetypal abstraction shuttle successful 1981, and dealt with problems passim that program’s 30-year life, including the unspeakable losses of Challenger and Columbia.

After having nary different U.S. options for implicit 30 years, 3 antithetic quality spacecraft programs are present underway. In summation to the SpaceX Crew Dragon and the Boeing Starliner, NASA’s Orion spacecraft for the Artemis II mission, is planned to fly 4 astronauts astir the Moon successful the adjacent mates of years.

These programs person had setbacks and bumps on the way—and determination volition beryllium more—but I haven’t been this excited astir quality spaceflight since I was an 11-year-old cheering for Apollo and dreaming astir putting the archetypal quality footprints connected Mars.

Michael E. Fossum is vice president of Texas A&M University.

This nonfiction is republished from The Conversation nether a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.