The return trip to Earth of two NASA astronauts has been delayed at least until the end of the month after several failures recorded in the capsule manufactured by Boeing that took them to the International Space Station in early June.
Boeing’s Starliner crew test capsule arrived at the station on June 6 with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. The docking of the capsule to the station occurred 260 miles above the Indian Ocean and culminated a tortuous start to what was Boeing’s debut in a manned space flight.
“It’s nice to be docked to the big city in the sky,” Wilmore said once the docks between the two spacecraft were fixed.
The outward journey occurred amid delays caused by helium leak problems and with five of the capsule’s 28 thrusters disabled. The astronauts managed to reactivate four of them.
Although the astronauts were initially planned to remain on the station for eight days, NASA now maintains that both will be in space at least until June 26, while engineers from Earth analyze the recorded failures.
NASA officials said Tuesday that there is no reason to believe that the Starliner will not be able to bring the two veteran astronauts back.
Leaks and failures plagued the outward journey
The first failures of the capsule occurred as soon as it was put into orbit. At that time, the Starliner had a small helium leak.
Helium is used to pressurize the fuel lines of the Starliner’s thrusters, which are essential for maneuvering.
A defective rubber seal, no larger than a shirt button, is believed to have been responsible for the original leak.
Immediately, Administrators at Boeing and the space agency said further leaks were unlikely and said they could manage the propulsion system despite that first problem.
However, a few hours into the flight, two more leaks emerged, and one more was discovered after docking.
Later, five of the capsule’s 28 thrusters were disabled. The astronauts managed to reactivate four of them, which gave them a sufficient safety margin to proceed.
By that time, the Starliner had passed the first docking opportunity and circled the globe for another hour next to the station before rejoining it.
Before the thruster failure, Boeing spokesman Jim May said the leaks did not pose any safety concerns for the astronauts or the mission.
The thruster problems are not linked to helium leaks, Steve Stich, director of NASA’s commercial crew program, said after the incidents.
“We have some tools in our toolbox to handle this,” Stich said.
In addition, Boeing and NASA officials maintained after the incidents that they have chosen to give the Starliner – and the astronauts – more time than scheduled to carry out additional analysis.
The helium leaks and thruster problems occurred in a part of the capsule that is not intended to survive the return flight.
The dangers of return
In any case, danger always exists on a return flight from space. It is probably one of the most tortuous phases of a space mission.
The trip requires the Starliner to pass through Earth’s thick atmosphere while traveling 22 times faster than the speed of sound. The process will subject the capsule to temperatures of about 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Then, a set of parachutes that were redesigned by Boeing and tested in January should slow the capsule on its descent to Earth.
Starliner will be the first American-made capsule to parachute one of these vehicles to the ground instead of the ocean. Boeing has said it hopes this type of descent will facilitate the process of recovering the capsule after the flight.
An expensive capsule
After the space shuttles stopped operating, NASA hired Boeing and SpaceX in 2014 to transport astronauts to and from the space station.
SpaceX service began in 2020 without major complications with its Crew Dragon model. The vehicle has made round trips with astronauts and private clients ever since.
The two astronauts who piloted the SpaceX model, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, also spent longer than expected in space, but they did so so that they could collaborate with the astronauts on the station in daily activities.
They were not left in space because of technical failures, as has been the case with Starliner pilots.
Boeing was supposed to start around the same time, but safety concerns and other problems delayed it for years.
Failures in the manufacturing of the Boeing capsule have been recorded from the beginning. Manufacturing of the capsule faced several delays that raised its cost to more than $1 billion.
The first unmanned test flight, in 2019, was plagued by errors. The vehicle exploded upon entering orbit, a symptom of software problems that occurred due to an error in an internal clock.
The second unmanned test flight, in 2022, also recorded software failures and problems with the thrusters.
Stich said at a news conference on Tuesday that engineers may not have resolved the software problems detected in 2022.
Michael Lembeck, an aerospace engineer and associate professor of practice at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who was a consultant to Boeing’s spaceflight division from 2009 to 2014, told CNN that it’s difficult to know whether additional testing could have detected propeller problems.
He also said that evaluating the success of the Starliner capsule flight compared to the Crew Dragon flights is not so simple, since SpaceX had made several unmanned cargo capsule flights for more than a decade.
He said those flights gave SpaceX an advantage, as Boeing designed its capsule “from scratch.”
Boeing, in the midst of controversy
Boeing’s problems go beyond capsule failures. In recent years it has been involved in scandals due to failures in its commercial aircraft division models.
The company faces lawsuits, investigations on several fronts and damage to its reputation, which was long seen as a model of safety in the aviation industry and that will likely take years to recover.
Boeing faces its biggest safety crisis in history, a nightmare that seems to have no end and that began with the accidents of two 737 Max 8s, in 2018 and 2019, in which more than 340 people died.
Since then, the giant, based in Washington, has not stopped receiving bad news.
In 2024, its aircraft have suffered several failures, which have been widely documented. For example, a 787 Dreamliner rapidly lost altitude mid-flight in March, injuring dozens of passengers.
However, after the capsule failures, Mark Nappi, director of Boeing’s Starlines program, quickly came out to clarify that this program operates independently of the other divisions of the aeronautical company.
He also said there should be plenty of helium in the Starliner’s reserves for the trip home.
SpaceX could be an option to bring them back
Lembeck, the aerospace expert, said that ultimately, if the capsule’s problems are not resolved, a Crew Dragon could bring the astronauts back.
“The embarrassing backup plan is that a Crew Dragon would have to go and get the astronauts out,” he said.
That capsule would be sent with two astronauts and would have to return with four.
“That could be the way back home.”
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