By Joey Roulette
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The first two astronauts to fly Boeing’s Starliner capsule said on Wednesday from the International Space Station that they were confident the spacecraft could return them home if the company and NASA could fix thruster problems that have kept them in space much longer than expected.
“I have a really good feeling in my heart that this spacecraft is going to get us home without any problems,” NASA astronaut Sunita “Suni” Williams said at the first press conference of the test crew that docked at the ISS more than a month ago.
Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore, both veteran NASA astronauts and former U.S. Navy test pilots, launched on the Starliner from Florida on June 5 and docked with the ISS the next day, where they were originally scheduled to spend about eight days.
Several problems with the Starliner’s propulsion system extended their mission indefinitely. Five of the Starliner’s 28 maneuvering thrusters failed during the journey to the station, a thruster valve did not close properly, and there were five leaks in the helium used to pressurize the thrusters.
“We’re absolutely confident,” Wilmore told reporters. “That mantra you hear is, failure is not an option.”
“And that’s why we’re staying, because we’re going to test. That’s what we’re doing,” Wilmore said, acknowledging that an ongoing investigation by the US space agency and Boeing involving thruster tests on Earth was key to their return.
The current test mission is Boeing’s final step before the spacecraft can receive NASA certification for routine astronaut flights and become the second U.S. orbital capsule alongside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, which has dominated the nascent human spaceflight market due to Starliner development delays.
BEING TESTED IN NEW MEXICO AND ALABAMA
To understand why some of the thrusters overheated and stopped working during Starliner’s flight to the International Space Station, NASA officials and Boeing engineers began test-firing the same thrusters at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico in an attempt to replicate the accidents.
At the same time, a study conducted at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama aims to determine why a type of seal in Starliner’s propulsion system is leaking helium.
NASA officials said Wilmore and Williams’ return to Earth aboard the Starliner depends on the results of the thruster tests.
NASA’s commercial crew chief, Steve Stich, told reporters on Wednesday that they “took their time” with the tests and that the results of the New Mexico thruster tests “were not what they had hoped for.”
Stich said he hopes to have the tests completed by the end of this week. Stich has previously said the tests could take “a few weeks,” after which a detailed NASA review of the data will be conducted to inform NASA’s decision to allow Starliner to fly astronauts home.
Also deployed to the space station is SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, which carried four astronauts to the ISS in March, and a Russian Soyuz capsule that carried three more astronauts in September. Stich acknowledged that at least one of those vehicles could provide an alternative journey home for Wilmore and Williams.
“We have a little more time to review the data and then decide if we need to do anything different with the return plan,” Stich said. “But the primary option today is to return Butch and Suni to Starliner. We see no reason why that shouldn’t be the case at this time.”
Starliner is approved to remain docked with the International Space Station (ISS) for 45 days (July 21). This period could extend to 90 days using various backup systems and depending largely on the health of its lithium-ion batteries, which have raised concerns in the past.
While NASA and Boeing have said the Starliner could return astronauts to Earth in the event of an emergency on the International Space Station (ISS), the capsule has not been approved to return to Earth under normal, non-emergency conditions until the thruster issues are resolved or at least better understood.
Last month, a Russian satellite broke into about 180 pieces of debris near the space station’s orbit, forcing astronauts to board various docked spacecraft, including Wilmore and Williams’ Starliner, to prepare for a possible escape. Boeing cited the incident as an example of the Starliner being ready to return home if absolutely necessary.
Boeing’s Starliner chief Mark Nappi told reporters that such an emergency return scenario would be limited to Starliner departing the station and returning the crew safely to Earth, despite questions about the thrusters.
“I’m confident that if there was a problem on the International Space Station, we would be able to get in our spacecraft, leave the station, talk to our crew and figure out the best way to get home,” Williams said.
(Reporting by Joey Roulette, editing by Will Dunham)