NASA Considers Boeing Starliner or SpaceX Dragon to Return Astonauts
- by NextBigFuture
- Aug 01, 2024
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NASA and Boeing continue to analyze the Boeing Starliner at the International Space Station. The Boeing Starliner has been delayed about six weeks before a planned return flight of two astronauts.
Michael Tzukran is a satellite photographer who captured a picture of the Boeing Starliner being inspected by the Canadarm.
NASA said SpaceX’s Crew Dragon is the backup plan to return astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been stuck on the ISS for nearly two months due to Boeing’s Starliner issues.
🚀 Not lost in space, just stuck! On June 5th, #NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore took Boeing’s Starliner into orbit, but their ISS stay got extended. @Clayton_Sandell reports on what’s causing the delay and when they’re expected to return. #BoeingStarliner pic.twitter.com/XkzKDkcdA3 — Scripps News (@scrippsnews) June 25, 2024
At a July 26 briefing, NASA officials said they were targeting no earlier than Aug. 18 for the launch of the Crew-9 mission to the International Space Station. That date had been in question after an upper stage anomaly on a Falcon 9 Starlink launch that grounded the rocket for 15 days. At a separate briefing July 26, the four-person crew of Crew-9 — NASA astronauts Zena Cardman, Nick Hague and Stephanie Wilson and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexsandr Gorbunov — said they had no reservations on launching on a Falcon 9 weeks after the upper stage anomaly.
The timing for Crew 9 and Polaris dawn missions will also depend on Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft docked to the station on the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission. Starliner will have to depart to free up a docking port.
The first operational Starliner mission, called Starliner-1, is no longer scheduled to launch in February 2025 as previously planned. The Crew-10 mission will instead launch then to allow NASA and Boeing more time to review data from the CFT mission and make any changes to the spacecraft. He said Starliner-1 has been rescheduled for August 2025.
Boeings quarterly earnings report for Q2 2024 registered another $125 million loss on the Starliner program. The delays on the Starliner still-ongoing Crew Flight Test, the program’s first mission to carry astronauts into orbit. There have been various leaks of helium, thruster and other issues. Boeing has now suffered an overall loss on the program of nearly $1.6 billion since 2016.
NASA awarded Boeing a fixed price $4.2 billion contract to complete development of the Starliner spacecraft a decade ago. The original plan was to use the Starliner ready to fly astronauts by the end of 2017.
SpaceX has completed all six of its original crew flights for NASA and was paid $3.1 billion. Boeing is at least a year away from starting operational service with Starliner. NASA extended SpaceX’s commercial crew contract to cover eight additional round-trip flights to the space station through the end of the 2020s.
Boeing has fixed-price contracts with the Pentagon to develop new two new Air Force One presidential transport aircraft, Air Force refueling tankers, refueling drones, and trainer airplanes. Boeing has reported losses on all of those programs.
Brian Wang
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
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