(Washington) NASA acknowledged Wednesday that there were “tensions” in recent meetings with Boeing officials over how to return two astronauts stranded aboard the International Space Station (ISS) due to capsule malfunctions. Starliner of the American aeronautical giant.
The American space agency, however, denied press reports that shouting had punctuated these meetings.
NASA announced at the end of August that it was now Boeing’s competitor, SpaceX, which would be responsible for bringing Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams back to Earth.
The serial difficulties encountered on the Starliner led to this difficult decision not to use this ship for the return mission. A snub for Boeing, already bogged down by repeated setbacks with its airliners.
The two astronauts were supposed to spend eight days in space, but will ultimately stay there for at least eight months, until February 2025 and SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission.
Boeing has publicly stated on several occasions that it is confident in the safety of its ship.
The absence of group leaders from recent NASA news conferences had fueled speculation that there were rifts with the space agency.
According to the New York Postciting sources familiar with the matter, recent meetings between senior officials from both sides have often ended in quarrels accompanied by shouting matches.
“Uncertainty”
NASA’s commercial human spaceflight program manager, Steve Stich, said he wouldn’t characterize the meetings as heated, but that they included “tense technical discussions.”
“Any time you’re in a meeting of this importance, where there’s this kind of decision (to be made), there’s a certain amount of tension in the room,” he said.
He said that despite Boeing’s certainty about its projections, the NASA team “was not comfortable” proceeding, “because of the uncertainty around the model.”
Starliner is scheduled to detach from the ISS shortly after 6 p.m. ET Friday before beginning its uncrewed descent and landing in the western United States Saturday morning.
NASA ordered a new spacecraft from Boeing and SpaceX ten years ago to each carry its astronauts to the ISS. With two vehicles, it wants to avoid being left without a solution in case of a problem with one or the other.
But Elon Musk’s company has largely beaten Boeing and has been acting alone as the American space taxi for four years now.
This first flight of Starliner The crewed test, completed years late due to setbacks during its development, was to be the final test before starting regular operations.
Despite the months-long extension of their stay in space, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are keeping their spirits up and staying in touch with their loved ones, according to NASA. They are no longer dependent on clothing loaned to them by their comrades aboard the ISS, since a resupply mission has provided them with clothing that better fits their bodies.