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Two stranded astronauts might not get a return flight until February. The chance to test pilot Boeing’s Starliner was an opportunity they trained for their entire career. Both Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are hotshot jet jockeys, addicted to the adrenaline rush of high-G action. Hanging around upside down in micro-gravity, doing menial tasks around the tin can to keep occupied, isn’t easy. They were booked for an eight-day stay, eight weeks ago. They just learned they can make that eight months. If they’re lucky they’ll be home by Valentine’s day.
Return booking delay
Since it’s looking like their ride will need to be repaired before they can return home in Starliner, NASA has been booking alternative travel plans to get them back to Earth. The amazing part is that they have options. The maiden flight of the Boeing craft was meant to be a shakedown cruise.
That’s why Wilmore and Williams were chosen. In their profession as test pilots, they know that things don’t always work the way they’re designed. They usually find that out suddenly, in life threatening ways. This time, they’re physically safe.
While they know better than to verbalize any complaints, it’s easy to imagine that they’re mentally on the edge of freaking out. They’re professionals and should be able to cope with the relentless boredom and claustrophobia but that doesn’t mean they have to enjoy it.
NEWS: For unknown reasons, Boeing had removed Starliner’s autonomous undocking feature from its flight software code – Now, Boeing wants to push a software update to its crippled spacecraft, but NASA fears it could brick one of the two crewed-vehicle docking ports on the ISS. 🤦♂️ pic.twitter.com/lPVAm7ALjr
— ALEX (@ajtourville) August 9, 2024
Learning that their return was delayed until sometime after Groundhog Day came with privileges to access the medical supplies for a few tranquilizers.
When Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams checked in to the International Space Station, they didn’t realize that, for them, it would become “Hotel California.”
For now, their best hope of safe return to Earth is to catch a ride with Elon Musk. A SpaceX CrewDragon is planning the mission but won’t be ready for launch until February.
One more test set
On Wednesday, August 7, NASA announced that they still have another round of tests to do on Starliner but they’re going ahead to book seats for Wilmore and Williams with SpaceX. They’re not expecting successful results from “tests in the coming weeks.”
If they’re not totally convinced that the crew will be safe, they won’t be coming down in Starliner. They will return, it’s just going to take a while. Meanwhile, another little issue popped up.
It seems that someone deleted the programming file for Starliner to decouple from the docking port on autopilot. It will take a firmware update beamed up from ground control to fix that but that creates yet another problem.
Boeing Starliner astronauts might not return to Earth until next year, NASA says https://t.co/jASpIMuV3S via @upi
— JeffNNN (@JeffNNNG) August 10, 2024
If anything goes wrong, it could “brick” the docking port. Not only would that prevent anyone from flying the return trip, ever, Starliner could become a permanent addition to the ISS. It’s not like they had an abundance of docking ports to start with.
The SpaceX rocket which is now slated for their return vehicle had been scheduled to launch on August 18. That mission was planned for after Starliner had already departed and that was the docking port they needed to use.
There is still a small chance that Starliner will fly the return mission. “We have not formally committed to this path, but we wanted to ensure we had all that flexibility in place,” NASA officials note.
