‘We’re Not Stuck.’ Why Boeing’s Starliner Isn’t Returning to Earth (Yet)

When astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on June 5, they expected to be back in time for the Juneteenth holiday.

The two were testing Boeing’s newest spacecraft, called Starliner. All they had to do was put it through its paces, dock briefly with the International Space Station (ISS), and come home. The entire mission would last about a week.

Instead, a series of leaks and malfunctions have caused NASA to indefinitely postpone the duo’s return.

But whatever you do, don’t say they’re stranded.

“We are not stuck on the ISS,” Mark Nappi, Boeing’s vice president for the Commercial Crew Program, told reporters during a June 28 news conference. “The crew is not in danger and there is no increased risk if we decide to bring Suni and Butch back to Earth.”

Here’s what’s happening with Boeing’s newest spacecraft.

Even before this launch there were problems

The Starliner’s development has not been smooth. During its first unmanned test flight in 2019, the craft failed to reach its expected orbit. The problem was later attributed to an onboard clock that had been set incorrectly, causing Starliner’s thrusters to fire at the wrong time.

Starliner never made it to the ISS on that trip, and NASA demanded a second test flight without astronauts. When it was re-launched in 2022, two of Starliner’s thrusters failed as expected. It successfully switched to backup thrusters and docked with the space station.

Astronauts were finally scheduled to launch last year, but then Boeing discovered two more problems with the spacecraft: issues with the parachute system that floated them back to Earth, and tape used to hold down wiring that posed a potential fire hazard. Fixing both issues delayed the launch until this spring.

Ultimately, Williams and Wilmore were trapped on May 6, when more problems arose: a stuck valve on the Starliner that launched the rocket had to be replaced, and mission engineers discovered that the Starliner itself was leaking helium.

Helium gas is used to pressurize Starliner’s propulsion system. It took weeks for NASA to determine that the leaks were not severe enough to cause the mission to run out of helium.

Thrust cluster leads to confusion

With all systems finally “go,” Starliner’s launch went off without a hitch. On June 5, Williams and Wilmore sailed into Earth orbit.

But as they approached the ISS, new problems arose. Five of the 28 “Reaction Control Thrusters” aboard Starliner’s service module unexpectedly shut down, leaving the spacecraft stuck just outside the docking port while engineers worked out some problems.

Ultimately, the spacecraft successfully docked with the space station, and four of the five thrusters were brought back online. However, NASA later announced that it had found four additional helium leaks in various parts of the spacecraft, bringing the total to five.

NASA now says it needs to conduct additional testing and evaluation of these issues before Williams and Wilmore can return to Earth. Space agency engineers suspect faulty seals are the source of the helium leaks, which they believe pose little risk. But the problems with the booster are harder to pin down.

NASA says it will begin extensive testing of a Starliner booster this week at its White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, N.M. The test booster will be subjected to simulated launches, dockings and landings to see if engineers can reproduce the problems and to confirm that the booster can be safely used to bring Williams and Wilmore home.

“Once that test is completed, we’ll look at the landing plan,” Steve Stich, program manager for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, told reporters. The entire process could take several weeks, he said.

Don’t say fixed

Even before the final press conference, news outlets were speculating that Williams and Wilmore were stuck aboard the space station, a claim that Boeing seems particularly angry about.

“The astronauts are not stranded on the ISS,” read the first line of the company’s statement on the matter, which NPR obtained June 26.

“They’re not stuck in space,” agrees Laura Forczyk, executive director of Astralytical, a space consulting group. The astronauts are comfortably housed on the International Space Station.

Starliner is designed to stay in space for up to 210 days, Stich said. This test flight was originally going to be limited to 45 days because of the spacecraft’s battery life, but Stich said the space station is charging its batteries as designed, and NASA is looking to extend that limit.

In an emergency, NASA could use a SpaceX Dragon capsule or a Russian Soyuz capsule to bring the duo home, but Forczyk doubts that would be necessary.

“I don’t see this as anything critical or life-threatening,” Forczyk said. “I just think they’re being extra cautious, as they should be, because this vehicle is not functioning as intended.”

Forczyk notes that the problems with the helium system and the thrusters are in Starliner’s service module, a part of the spacecraft that is jettisoned before landing. For that reason, she says, engineers may want to keep Starliner on the station longer so they can collect more data from the module before it burns up during reentry.

In further evidence of NASA’s confidence in Starliner, Williams and Wilmore took refuge in the spacecraft last week after a Russian satellite broke apart, leaving behind debris that could have posed a threat to the space station.

“Butch and Suni got into the spacecraft, started the vehicle, closed the hatch and were ready to … perform an emergency landing,” Stich said.

Starliner’s future could be uncertain

In 2014, Boeing was awarded a $4.2 billion contract by NASA to build Starliner. The spacecraft was supposed to regularly ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station within a decade. Those flights are now years behind schedule, and the delays have cost Boeing at least $1.5 billion in losses.

Meanwhile, rival SpaceX, which was allocated just $2.6 billion, successfully flew people to the space station in 2020 and completed eight regular crewed missions to the space station for NASA.

Ron Epstein, an analyst at Bank of America, says the problems are part of a larger issue at the airline giant. “I don’t think you can look at it in isolation,” he says.

Boeing has also struggled with problems with its 737 Max planes, including a door that flew off one earlier this year. Delivery of two 747s that will serve as presidential Air Force One has also been delayed.

Bill Ingalls / NASA/AP

/

NASA/AP

According to Epstein, these problems are at their core caused by a shift away from “hardcore engineering” within the company’s management.

“You have management teams that have been focusing more on shareholder returns than on the core business of the company, the technology, for a number of years,” he says.

Starliner’s first regular flight carrying astronauts to the ISS is now scheduled for February 2025, but it’s unclear whether NASA will certify the new spacecraft in time. Even if it does, it will likely fly only a handful of times before NASA decommissions the space station in 2030.

Given the above, Epstein said it is possible that Boeing could pull out of the program altogether if NASA requires extensive modifications and repairs to the Starliner.

“I think Boeing’s management has made it clear to the investment community that Starliner and certain aspects of aerospace are just not their core business,” he said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the company doesn’t want to continue.”

But Boeing’s Nappi says the company is fully committed to Starliner. “The simple answer to the question is, ‘No, we’re not going to back down,'” he says. “This is our job.”

Copyright 2024 NPR