NASA said on Wednesday it has “placed all the options on the table” while planning the return of its Starliner astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore from space. In a media interaction on Thursday, an official of the US space agency said it has weighed-in on many options. One of those would ensure the return of the two astronauts to Earth in 2025. And this plan involves Boeing’s rival SpaceX.
Steve Stich, manager, Commercial Crew Program, said NASA’s prime option is to return Butch and Sunita on Starliner. “However, we have done requisite planning to make sure we have other options open,” he said.
Stich said the NASA has been working with SpaceX. “We have been working with SpaceX to ensure that they are ready to respond on Crew 9… returning Butch and Suni on Crew 9 if we need that.”
NASA announced the delay of SpaceX Crew 9 mission on Tuesday, pushing its launch from mid-August to 25 September this year. The will carry four crew members to the International Space Station (ISS).
These astronauts are supposed to arrive at the space station for a short duration handover with NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission. They will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft.
Sunita Williams to return to Earth in 2025?
Referring to this Crew 9 launch, the NASA official explained how they planned to bring the two Starliner astronauts back to Earth. This particular aims at bringing back Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore by 2025.
He said, “We have set up the Dragon for Crew 9 to have flexibility, to have only two passengers fly up on that flight and then we can return four crew members in February 2025 time frame, and Butch and Suni would remain on station as part of that increment and return home with them on Crew 9.”
He, however, mentioned, “We haven’t approved this plan yet…”
The return of Starliner, which was supposed to return by mid-June, has been delayed following thruster and helium leak anomalies on the Starliner capsule docked at the ISS. Authorities in space and on ground are working the clock to find root cause of the Starliner’s problem and plan a safe return of Sunita and Butch.
Starliner has since been docked at the International Space Station and has spent two months in space, with no return date.
Everything’s not right with Starliner
The NASA official said that Boeing’s Starliner needs software configuration. “If we have to undock Starliner first in an uncrewed configuration, we have a task order in place to allow up to three crew members on the cargo pallet…in the Crew 8 dragon,” the NASA official said.
“Starliner has the capability to undock in an uncrewed configuration…the software on Starliner is fine…it can actually handle the capability to do an uncrewed undock…however, we just have to configure some software parameters…,” the official added.
The Starliner capsule brought two NASA astronauts – Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore – to the ISS on June 6. This Starliner Crew Flight Test (CFT) was the first-ever astronaut mission of Boeing’s new Starliner capsule.