Beleaguered Boeing Starliner to depart space station, alone, Friday night
Although it delivered its crew to the International Space Station back in June, Starliner will be empty for its return to Earth, now scheduled to begin Friday night.
After suffering a string of setbacks and problems, Boeing's troubled Starliner spacecraft is set to return home from space, but due to safety issues, it will be making the trip completely on its own.
It's been rough going for Starliner's first crewed test flight to the International Space Station. The flight was already delayed by close to seven years, as it had been originally scheduled to launch back in 2017. When the date for the mission was finally set, for early May 2024, technical problems forced them to cancel. A second attempt was made on June 1, but was again scrubbed, this time due to a helium leak detected in the capsule's propulsion system. Despite the leak persisting, the mission finally blasted off at just before 11 a.m. on June 5, 2024, carrying crew members Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams into orbit.
Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on June 5, 2024 (NASA)
Once in space, the problems continued. In addition to the helium leak, several of the spacecraft's attitude control thrusters deactivated as Starliner approached the space station. Mission control managed to get four of them back online before the spaceship could dock. Despite investigating this thruster problem from the ground for nearly three months, the mission team still could not properly diagnose and solve the issue.
Added to this, on Saturday, August 31, Wilmore reported a strange 'pulsing' noise coming from Starliner's internal speaker system.
Boeing Starliner Calypso is shown docked to the International Space Station's Harmony module on June 22, 2024. (NASA)
"The feedback from the speaker was the result of an audio configuration between the space station and Starliner. The space station audio system is complex, allowing multiple spacecraft and modules to be interconnected, and it is common to experience noise and feedback," NASA said. "The crew is asked to contact mission control when they hear sounds originating in the comm system. The speaker feedback Wilmore reported has no technical impact to the crew, Starliner, or station operations."
Returning home alone
Starliner is now scheduled to detach from the Space Station at 6:04 p.m. EDT on Friday, Sept. 6, after which it should touch down at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico roughly six hours later, at 12:03 a.m. EDT on Sept. 7. When it departs, the spacecraft will be on its own, uncrewed for its return to Earth.
Watch the NASA Livestream of the undocking, starting at 5:46 p.m. EDT, below:
According to NASA, rather than splashing down in the ocean like SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft, Starliner is designed to descend via parachutes and then deploy airbags to cushion its landing.
Boeing's uncrewed Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) lands at White Sands Space Harbor, in New Mexico, on Wednesday, May 25, 2022. (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
With Starliner making this journey empty, astronauts Wilmore and Williams will be remaining on the International Space Station for at least another five months.
SpaceX's Crew 9 mission is currently scheduled to lift off on Sept. 24, 2024, with the Dragon spacecraft carrying just two of its original four crew members — NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. The other two seats on the flight are being intentionally left empty, so that they can be filled by Wilmore and Williams when the mission returns to Earth in February of 2025.
From left to right, the original four members of NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 mission: mission specialist Alexander Gorbunov of Roscosmos, pilot Nick Hague, commander Zena Cardman, and mission specialist Stephanie Wilson. The group posed for this photo at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, on May 6, 2024. (SpaceX)
The two remaining members of the Crew 9 mission — NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson — are now waiting for reassignment to upcoming space flights. This would have been Cardman's first flight to space, while it would have been Wilson's fourth trip.
"I am deeply proud of our entire crew," Cardman told NASA, "and I am confident Nick and Alex will step into their roles with excellence. All four of us remain dedicated to the success of this mission, and Stephanie and I look forward to flying when the time is right."
"I know Nick and Alex will do a great job with their work aboard the International Space Station as part of Expedition 72," Wilson added.
