Due to technical problems detected on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, the two astronauts aboard the International Space Station cannot use it to return to Earth. NASA has developed a plan B to bring them back, but it will take time.
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Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the two astronauts tasked with testing Starliner, the new spaceship developed by Boeing, will have to be patient. They were only supposed to stay aboard the International Space Station for a week, but they could end up staying there for another seven long months. The technical problems identified on the ship on the way out have still not been resolved. It is therefore impossible, for the moment, to use it to return to Earth.
NASA therefore announced that a plan B had been put in place to bring the two astronauts back to Earth. It would require the two test pilots to remain aboard the Space Station until February 2025. Their return trip would then be made with Space X’s ship, the Dragon capsule and its four seats, already used to ensure astronaut rotations.
One of these rotations was supposed to take place in mid-August, but NASA confirmed that the launch would be postponed until the end of September. Two of the four astronauts who were supposed to leave could remain on Earth. And the other two would then join Butch Wilmore and Sunni Williams, the two astronauts who identified problems with the thrusters during docking with the station on June 6. Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft therefore risks leaving empty to avoid endangering lives.
If this plan B is validated, it would be a new blow for the manufacturer already faced with failures of some of its planes. This scenario is therefore on the table but NASA is giving itself time to try to resolve the Starliner problems and possibly ensure the return trip with this capsule.
