Hard blow: spacecraft to return without its astronauts
Boeing is not doing well. In addition to problems with its planes, its spacecraft is experiencing problems that could endanger its astronauts. Return of test crew will be materialized with competitor Space X.
58-year- old Suni Williams and 61-year-old Butch Wilmore had signed up for a short 8-day trip to the International Space Station ISS. Little did they know that they will end up staying there for 8 months. Following several delayed departures due to damage to Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, control computers and the Atlas V rocket, things did not get better both during the flight and in orbit. Helium leaks were detected during the trip to the ISS on June 5, 2024. The engines were affected with out-of-service thrusters. This means that there is a on-going risk on board, especially since seams (joints) have been affected due to heat linked to the failure.
Solo return
Considering this, NASA decided to abandon the return of the two astronauts to earth with the Starliner spacecraft. They will be able to borrow a Space X ship (from Elon Musk's company) in February 2025. As for the Starliner spacecraft, docked since June 6, it will return to Earth alone thanks to its autonomous flight capacity. Let's try and make sure the sky doesn't fall on our head, we can't be sure of anything! Especially since part of the spacecraft will be consumed in the atmosphere during its return, in particular the engines that have experienced problems. Boeing and NASA will thus lose valuable clues to understand what happened. Nevertheless, the engines are studied meticulously in orbit before their return.
(MH with Olivier Duquesne - Source: Le Soir / Picture: © Boeing)
