Two astronauts left in space as return in Boeing capsule deemed ‘too risky’ | Tech News

Boeing’s first astronaut mission ended Friday evening with the landing of an empty capsule and two test pilots remaining in space, staying behind until next year because NASA deemed their return “too risky.”

Six hours after leaving the International Space Station, Starliner parachuted over the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and descended through the desert darkness on autopilot.

It was an uneventful conclusion to a drama that began in June with the Boeing crew’s long-delayed debut and escalated into a drawn-out cliffhanger over a mission plagued by engine failures and helium leaks.

For months, the return of Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams was uncertain because engineers did not understand the capsule’s problems.

After extensive testing, Boeing insisted that the Starliner could bring the two home safely, but NASA disagreed and booked a flight with SpaceX instead.

Their SpaceX Starship won’t launch until later this month, meaning they’ll be there until February — more than eight months after lifting off on what should have been a short trip.

Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams were due to fly back to Earth on the Starliner in mid-June, a week after launch. But their flight to the space station was marred by a series of engine problems and helium loss, and NASA ultimately decided it was too risky to bring them back on the Starliner.

After the latest software updates, the fully automated capsule left the station with empty seats, blue spacesuits and also some old station equipment.

Cameras on the space station and two NASA aircraft captured the capsule as a white streak as it landed, sparking great cheers.

There were some problems during re-entry, including further problems with the engines, but according to Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial crew program manager, the Starliner managed a “precise landing.”

Despite the safe return, “I think we made the right decision not to have Butch and Suni on board,” he said. “We’re all happy about the successful landing. But then there’s a part of us, all of us, that wishes it had gone the way we planned.”

Boeing did not attend the press conference in Houston, but two of the company’s top space and defense executives, Ted Colbert and Kay Sears, told employees in a statement that they supported NASA’s decision.

“Although we did not originally envision the outcome of the test flight, we support NASA’s decision to select Starliner and are proud of the performance of our team and our spacecraft,” the executives wrote.

The Starliner crew demo capped a journey fraught with delays and setbacks. After the space shuttles were retired more than a decade ago, NASA contracted Boeing and SpaceX to provide orbital taxi service.

Boeing encountered so many problems during its first uncrewed test flight in 2019 that the flight had to be repeated. Even more defects came to light and repair costs amounted to over a billion dollars.

SpaceX’s Crew Ferry flight later this month will be NASA’s 10th since 2020. The Dragon capsule will launch on the six-month expedition with just two astronauts, as two seats are reserved for Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams on the return flight.

As experienced astronauts and retired Navy captains, Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams are now full-time members of the station crew, along with the seven others on board.

Starliner will be transported back to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in a few weeks where analyses will be conducted.

NASA officials stressed that the space agency remains committed to using two competing U.S. companies to transport astronauts. The goal is for SpaceX and Boeing to take turns transporting astronauts — one per year for each company — until the space station is abandoned in 2030, just before its fiery reentry.

That doesn’t leave Boeing much time to catch up, but the company intends to move forward with the Starliner, NASA said.

Mr Stich said that after the landing, it was still too early to know when the next Starliner flight with astronauts could take place.

“It will take some time before we determine the way forward,” he said.

Contact our news team by emailing [email protected].

For more stories like this, visit Visit our news page.

MORE: Boeing plane en route to Great Britain has to make emergency landing

MORE: Boeing’s faulty capsule that stranded astronauts has started making strange noises

MORE: Two people killed in airplane tire explosion identified as Air Force veteran and father of two

This website is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.