A duo of NASA astronauts have been left stranded in outer space after a Boeing Starliner spacecraft was plagued with severe mechanical issues.
The two were supposed to return to Earth on June 14, but have now had to deal with numerous delays, with the most recent being the third. There is no ETA for when they will return to Earth, according to ABC News.
Boeing faced issues prior to the launch; the aviation giant had notably canceled a scheduled Starliner launch in early June. This was after the same launch had faced a delay for rocket repairs and leak checks.
Starliner first took off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida on June 5, led by flight commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore alongside flight pilot Sunita “Suni” Williams. The mission comes as a test to see if Boeing’s spacecraft could be approved for use in regular missions to and from the ISS, per the outlet.
“We are taking our time and following our standard mission management team process,” said Steve Stich, who manages NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. “We are letting the data drive our decision making relative to managing the small helium system leaks and thruster performance we observed during rendezvous and docking.”
Mark Nappi, the vice president and program manager of Boeing’s Starliner program, claimed that the “crew’s feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and they know that every bit of learning we do on the Crew Flight Test will improve and sharpen our experience for future crews.”
Makena Young, a fellow with the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), remarked to Fox News Digital that “Operating in space, building these spacecraft, especially human-rated spacecraft for commercial companies, is a new endeavor that’s still incredibly technical.” Thus, “It’s a really hard operating environment when things go wrong … It’s not like you can go to take it to a mechanic when you’re in space.”
Sitch maintained that the Starfliner is “performing well in orbit while docked to the space station” and that NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is “strategically using the extra time to clear a path for some critical station activities while completing readiness for Butch and Suni’s return on Starliner and gaining valuable insight into the system upgrades we will want to make for post-certification missions.”
Some people, however, appear less confident. Rudy Ridolfi, former Space System Commander and Space Technology Acquisition Manager, recently told Daily Mail that Boeing may be forced to ditch its Starliner ship and instead tap into Elon Musk’s SpaceX for help, utilizing one of the company’s Dragon capsules to help return the astronauts home.
Family members of the astronauts have refused to comment on the delays, according to Fox News.
The post NASA Astronauts Stranded in Space Amid Boeing Spacecraft Flop appeared first on Resist the Mainstream.
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Author: Darian Douraghy
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