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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is expected to decide on a plan to bring back Starliner astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore by the end of August. The top US space agency is now said to hold a review session on Saturday to discuss whether Boeing’s new capsule is safe enough to bring back two astronauts from the International Space Station.
In a press release on Thursday, NASA said, “NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and leadership will conduct an internal agency Test Flight Readiness Review for NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test on Saturday, Aug. 24.”
NASA said the review will include an update on mission status, a review of technical data and closing tasks, as well as certifying the flight justification to undock and return Starliner to the space station.
An announcement is expected from Houston after the meeting concludes.
“About an hour later, NASA will hold a live news conference from the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston at 1 p.m. Eastern time,” NASA said.
“We’re getting to a point where we should really have a decision made in the last week of August, if not before,” Ken Bowersox, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate, said in his last update on the Starliner launch.
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams took off on Boeing’s Starliner on June 5. The test flight’s return from space has now been delayed for months as officials work to fix the spacecraft. During the June 5 flight, Starliner suffered thruster failures and a helium leak that was so severe that NASA kept the capsule parked on the ISS.
NASA and Boeing have collected data both in space and on the ground regarding the Starliner spacecraft’s propulsion and helium systems to “better understand the ongoing technical challenges,” the agency said.
Starliner vs. SpaceX Dragon
While Starliner remains the primary option to bring Sunita and Butch back from space, NASA is considering other options if Starliner is not suitable enough. If NASA decides SpaceX is the way to go, Starliner will return to Earth empty in September.
Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich previously said NASA was working closely with SpaceX. “We’re working closely with SpaceX to make sure they’re ready to respond to Crew 9 … We’ll send Butch and Suni back to Crew 9 if we need to.”
To get them back on a SpaceX spacecraft, NASA would have to replan the SpaceX Crew-9 mission in late September by launching only two crew members instead of four. The two Starliner astronauts will return to Earth after the regularly scheduled Crew-9 increment early next year.
Meanwhile, engineers are evaluating a new computer model for the Starliner thrusters and looking at how they might perform as the capsule comes out of orbit for a landing in the US western desert. NASA said the results, including the latest risk analysis, will factor into the final decision.
This was the first astronaut flight of the Starliner, which had been delayed for several years due to a number of problems with the capsule. The two previous test flights of the Starliner had no one on board.
NASA hired Boeing and SpaceX to ferry its astronauts to the station a decade ago after the space shuttle was discontinued. SpaceX has been engaged in this work since 2020.
(with inputs from agencies)
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