Boeing’s troubles leave astronauts stranded on the ISS: “They could come back with Space X, but that would be a total slap in the face, a disaster”

First astronauts carried by Starliner spacecraft arrive at ISS, despite chaotic arrivalAt the heart of the difficulties? Leaks of helium, an inert (non-explosive) gas that is used here to provide sufficient pressure to bring the fuel into the Starliner’s propulsion valves. These thrusters are used to maneuver when approaching the station or to brake when re-entering Earth. “The problem is that the engineers don’t know what the origin of the problem is and therefore don’t know if it could get worse when the Starliner is flying again and using these thrusters again. Will other thrusters fail (five are already problematic)? Will the leaks get worse?” says Grégor Rauw, a space exploration specialist at ULiège. It would therefore be premature to make a decision on a flight now.” A first leak had in fact been spotted before takeoff but the flight had been maintained with the agreement of NASA. “Boeing probably acted under pressure, because the various postponements of the flight were damaging their image, already damaged by the problems of the “civil aircraft” division. In addition, checking the problem on the ground would have required dismantling the capsule and subjecting it to a whole series of tests, specifies Grégor Rauw. This did not seem serious enough to incur such an additional cost. What is the cause of the situation here? Were they too optimistic about these leaks or is it a general problem of project management?”

Everyone is safe

For now, the ship is safely docked to the ISS and the astronauts are well-equipped inside the station. According to NASA, the Starliner’s maximum docking time is 45 days. The American space agency is continuing to analyze the data to find the source of the leaks. At worst, the astronauts could return with the Russian Soyuz or a Space X ship. “For Boeing, calling on Space X would be a total slap in the face, a disaster in terms of credibility and marketing. It would be like saying: ‘we played the sorcerer’s apprentice, we lost, and now we have to fall back on our competitor.’ I don’t see how they could restore their image after such an affront,” judges Professor Rauw. I think they will do everything possible to ensure that the return takes place with Starliner. Knowing that, in the end, it is NASA that gives the green light to return to Earth. And that the priority remains the safety of the astronauts.”‘I was sidelined. I was told to shut up’: Four whistleblowers warn of ‘serious’ safety problems on Boeing planesIn both the optimistic and pessimistic scenarios, understanding the origin of the leaks while the ship remains connected to the ISS is essential: “Even if the ship and astronauts return to Earth without problems with Starliner, the part of the ship affected by the technical problems is the one that will burn up in the atmosphere. We will therefore not be able to examine this ground service module to understand what happened. And if the crew begins the return trip in the ship and it experiences more serious problems, returning to the space station will be much more problematic, knowing that they already had to be ingenious to be able to connect to the ISS the first time, due to the thruster problems. Getting them back to Earth with SpaceX would then be much more difficult to implement.” For its part, the American space agency has however stated that Wilmore and Williams are not “blocked” because they could undock and return to Earth at any time if deemed necessary, for example in the event of an emergency. They are being kept in orbit after their scheduled return to “give mission teams time to review propulsion system data.” “We are letting the data guide our decision-making regarding the management of small helium system leaks and the thruster performance we observed during rendezvous and docking,” NASA official Steve Stich said.