By Stacy Liberatore for Dailymail.com
5:15 p.m. June 27, 2024, updated 5:16 p.m. June 27, 2024
The delayed return of NASA astronauts from the International Space Station due to a Boeing Starliner malfunction has raised fears the crew is “stranded.”
While Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore’s stay was recently extended to an indefinite date, experts told DailyMail.com that the delay allows them to analyze the service module while it is still in space.
“The modular service does not return to Earth, which means it cannot be recovered and there is no way to analyze what the problem is,” Scott Walter, who has a PhD in space mechanical engineering, told DailyMail.com.
“The more time they have to debug it and run different tests, the better.”
Walter also noted that “nothing is off the table,” suggesting that NASA has already spoken with SpaceX about a possible rescue mission and that next month’s private Polaris Dawn spaceflight could also be part of the SpaceX’s Plan B. agency.
The service module, located near the bottom of the capsule, contains a total of 48 thrusters and four launch abort engines.
The structure is expected to be jettisoned when Starliner reenters the atmosphere and is likely to burn up, leaving NASA and Boeing without critical data on the cause of the malfunction.
Michael Lembeck, associate professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, told DailyMail.com that NASA and Boeing were just doing their homework.
“It’s too early to determine the root cause of the problem,” said Lembeck, who served as a consultant for Boeing’s spaceflight division from 2008 to 2013.
Click here to resize this module
He went on to explain that keeping Starliner docked to the ISS is the only way to fully study the capsule.
DailyMail.com has contacted Boeing for comment.
“I think NASA is thinking about all eventualities well in advance,” said Walter, chief technical advisor for Visual Components North America.
“They’ve already thought through these scenarios in case one of these capsules gets stuck or something goes wrong – they’re not suddenly scrambling to figure that out. »
He went on to explain that NASA and SpaceX likely had a “behind the scenes” discussion about using the Dragon capsule.
“I think there’s a Polaris Dawn mission with Jared Issacman, which could potentially be turned into a rescue mission,” Walter added.
“I’m sure he would be happy to say ‘go for it’.”
Issacman funded the Polaris Dawn mission, which is scheduled to launch on July 12 and will see the first commercial spacewalk.
DailyMail.com asked Issacman if he would be willing to carry out a rescue mission for the astronauts, to which he replied “officially no comment.”
“As far as I know, Starliner can come home, but if they were to abandon that vehicle, then I think realistically NASA would just send Crew 9 with two crew members,” he said.
NASA pushed back the return to June 14, then to June 26, before announcing the date was undetermined over the weekend.
Starliner had a known helium leak during its June 5 launch at 10:52 a.m. ET from the Cape Canaveral space station in Florida.
Steve Stich, director of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said last month that he was confident that 27 of those 28 boosters were working properly, with no leaks or other problems.
However, Starliner experienced five failures of its 28 maneuvering thrusters, five leaks of helium gas intended to pressurize those thrusters, and a slow-moving thruster valve that signaled past problems unresolved since launch.
When Starliner arrived at the space station to dock on June 6, five thruster failures prevented the spacecraft from getting close until Boeing found a solution.
He rewrote the software and changed some procedures to reactivate four of them and proceed with the docking.
The Starliner’s undocking and return to Earth represent the most complicated phases of the spacecraft’s test mission.
Boeing spent $1.5 billion in cost overruns on its $4.5 billion development contract with NASA.
NASA officials said they want to better understand the cause of the thruster failures, valve problem and helium leaks before Starliner begins its return.
While only one thruster remains dead on Starliner’s current flight, Boeing encountered four thruster problems during the capsule’s uncrewed return from space in 2022.
Lembeck explained that the helium in the thrusters helps open and close the valves.
There are gaskets on the valve, which tend to pop and the temperature changes experienced during a spaceflight mission can deform the gasket.
“This is the first flight of a vehicle with a crew on board and every first flight has had problems,” Lembeck said.
“In Boeing’s defense, when they proposed Starliner, NASA didn’t provide a complete budget schedule and they had to make some choices, but I’m not saying that led to these problems. »
He also predicted that Starliner would likely return with Williams and Wilmore during the first or second week of July.
Rudy Ridolfi, former space system commander and head of space technology acquisitions, told DailyMail.com: “NASA will take a very conservative approach and Boeing’s return plan will be forwarded to Bill Nelson for final approval.”
“There is no rush at this point. If Boeing fails to bring the two astronauts back on board the Starliner, it would almost certainly kill the program.
The Starliner has an operational lifespan of 45 days, which would place its return in mid-July.
“Both astronauts are qualified test pilots, they have a lot of experience, they are space veterans and they are the ones who decide whether the vehicle is safe or not – it’s always the pilot who makes the final decision,” Walter said.
“They are probably consulting with NASA and there is no way the administration is going to pressure them to reconsider this issue.”