{"id":21610,"date":"2024-08-30T00:36:18","date_gmt":"2024-08-29T16:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-makes-its-decision-starliner-to-return-uncrewed\/"},"modified":"2024-08-30T00:36:18","modified_gmt":"2024-08-29T16:36:18","slug":"nasa-makes-its-decision-starliner-to-return-uncrewed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-makes-its-decision-starliner-to-return-uncrewed\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA makes its decision: Starliner to return uncrewed"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"img-border featured-image\">\n<p>\t<img width=\"100%\" src=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/05\/Boeing-Starliner-ISS.jpeg?quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1500\" class=\"skip-lazy wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/05\/Boeing-Starliner-ISS.jpeg?w=320&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/05\/Boeing-Starliner-ISS.jpeg?w=640&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/05\/Boeing-Starliner-ISS.jpeg?w=1024&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/05\/Boeing-Starliner-ISS.jpeg?w=1500&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 1500w\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-attachment-id=\"30777\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/2022\/05\/23\/boeing-oft-2-starliner-docks-with-space-station-a-successful-but-rocky-venture\/boeing-starliner-iss\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/05\/Boeing-Starliner-ISS.jpeg?quality=82&amp;strip=all\" data-orig-size=\"4096,2731\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-title=\"Boeing-Starliner-ISS\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\n\n<p>Image: NASA<\/p>\n<p>&#8221; data-large-file=&#8221;https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/05\/Boeing-Starliner-ISS.jpeg?quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024&#8243;><figcaption>\n\t\t\t\tImage: NASA\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over the weekend, NASA made its decision that Boeing\u2019s Starliner would not be safe enough to risk returning its crew from space. Instead, the agency has decided the two astronauts who flew up to space on it will return with Crew-9 on SpaceX\u2019s Dragon early next year.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-41345\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s been a long summer for our team,\u201d proclaimed Steve Stich, NASA\u2019s Commercial Crew Program Manager, during a press conference announcing the news Boeing\u2019s Starliner will return to Earth uncrewed. What was supposed to be a short test flight has lasted over two months as Boeing and NASA investigate Starliner\u2019s issues.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">NASA\u2019s Administrator Bill Nelson announced at the start of Saturday\u2019s press conference that Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the crew of Boeing\u2019s Starliner Crewed Flight Test, would not be returning home on it but on SpaceX\u2019s Crew-9 mission in February. The decision came after the agency didn\u2019t see enough data from ground thruster tests to justify the risk of flying the crew home on Starliner.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe have had mistakes done in the past. We have lost two space shuttles as a result in there not being a culture in which information could come forward,\u201d Nelson said about what went into making the decision. \u201cThe decision to keep Butch and Suni onboard the International Space Station and bring the Boeing Starliner home uncrewed is a result to a commitment to safety.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t<span class=\"outbrain-ad-label\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t<script type=\"text\/plain\">\n\t\t\twindow.adSlotsConfig = window.adSlotsConfig || [];<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tadSlotsConfig.push( {\n\t\t\t\tslotID: '\/1049447\/Outbrain',\n\t\t\t\tslotName: 'div-gpt-ad-outbrain-ad-41345',\n\t\t\t\tsizes: [300, 250],\n\t\t\t\tslotPosition: 'mid_article'\n\t\t\t} );\n\t\t<\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">NASA\u2019s call on how to return Butch and Suni came after an agency-wide flight test readiness review that went over everything Boeing and the agency have discovered through tests. Boeing was apparently on board with either a crewed or uncrewed return of the spacecraft, named Calypso, but suggested NASA make the call.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This all started when thrusters on Starliner began failing during docking to the ISS back in early June. Teams halted docking to figure out a short-term fix to get the spacecraft docked, but now a long-term solution and understanding of why it happened was needed before return.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was discovered during ground tests that Teflon tape inside the thruster systems was expanding, causing unpredictable behavior. Even with more ground tests and models, it wasn\u2019t enough for NASA\u2019s risk tolerances.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Moving forward, Butch and Suni will become officially integrated into the Expedition 71 and 72 crews, Crew-8\u2018s Dragon will be temporarily set up to support a six-person contingency landing, and sometime in September, Starliner will be remotely undocked from the station.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Crew-9 will launch with two crew members instead of four; those flying have yet to be announced. NASA could either split the current Crew-9 members in two or push them back to Crew-10 and put two new members to command and pilot the Dragon for Crew-9. The agency hasn\u2019t hinted at all as to what motion they will take, only saying crew assignments are in the works.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For Boeing, it hasn\u2019t been decided if they will require a second crewed flight test or some sort of third uncrewed flight test. However, NASA officials have said they remain committed to supporting the company in completing its contract. Nelson spoke with Boeing\u2019s new CEO, Kelly Ortberg, who also expressed the company\u2019s commitment to supporting NASA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21610"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21610\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}