Will Sunita Williams return to Earth by mid-August? NASA weighs SpaceX to bring Starliner astronauts back: Top Updates

Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore may return from space soon. In its latest update, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said the completion of Starliner’s return planning “is expected to continue into next week”.

Moreover, NASA is gearing up for the launch of the next SpaceX Crew Dragon mission, Crew-9, no earlier than August 18. In the wake of the new launch, the priority is believed to be the return of the Starliner spacecraft to free up one of the two docking ports at the International Space Station (ISS).

So, before the Crew-9 launch, NASA and Boeing officials are focused on resolving issues with Starliner, news agency ANI reported.

In briefing on July 10, a NASA official had said, “The big driver is the handover that we have coming up between Crew 8 and Crew 9, which is in mid-august. So, we have to back up.”

“We haven’t yet done that yet, but obviously, a few days before that launch opportunity, we would need to get Butch and Sunny home on Starliner. So that’s kind of a backend,” the official had said.

He said data is being analysed to “see what the earliest we could target for undocking [at the ISS] and landing” on Earth.

The Crew-9 mission, targeted to launch in mid-August, will carry NASA astronauts Zena Cardman, Nick Hague, Stephanie Wilson, and cosmonaut Alexsandr Gorbunov of Roscosmos to the orbiting laboratory. As per NASA, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the crew aboard a Dragon spacecraft

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft launched NASA’s Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams into space on June 5. They reached the International Space Station (ISS) on June 6. They are the first astronauts to fly Boeing’s troubled Starliner.

The duo was expected to return to Earth in a few weeks. However, their stay in space has been extended following thruster and helium leak anomalies on the Starliner capsule docked at the ISS.

No date has been set for the return of the two NASA astronauts from space. The Starliner capsule has been in space for 59 days and counting.

Starliner or SpaceX’s Crew Dragon? Sunita and Butch to come back on…

Right now, the prime option for the NASA astronauts is to return on Boeing’s Starliner capsule. However, an official had said on July 10, “…we decided to use Dragon as a contingency return option…and had it set up for if we needed to use it as a lifeboat…”

“We declared Starliner safe to we an emergency return vehicle…,” the official said. Boeing’s Mark Nappi earlier stressed that in an emergency, Starliner and its crew could return right now.

“Starliner is go to return an emergency if the crew needed to return at any point in time,” officials had said.

Meanwhile, CNBC reported on Friday that NASA management has been mulling the possibility of returning Starliner empty and instead using SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft to return its astronaut.

A source told CNBC that NASA’s concern with Starliner stems from not having identified the root cause for why multiple of the spacecraft’s thrusters failed during docking.

“There is no consensus among those responsible for making the decision,” sources added.

NASA has said that one of the motives behind Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore’s longer-than-scheduled stay is to identify the cause of the problem on Starliner and conduct multiple checks before returning to Earth. The thrusters on the service module are critical for the Starliner to return to Earth safely.

“Teams are taking their time to analyse the results of recent docked hot-fire testing, finalize flight rationale for the spacecraft’s integrated propulsion system, and confirm system reliability ahead of Starliner’s return to Earth from the International Space Station,” NASA said on Thursday.

‘Boeing expects to lose $125 million’

As the Boeing Starliner’s return to Earth is delayed indefinitely, the aerospace company expects to lose $125 million more, Business Insider reported.

As per the report, Boeing informed in a Wednesday SEC filing that because of the delays, it has “increased the reach-forward loss on the program by $125 (million).”

This was on top of the $288 million additional loss that the company had projected in 2023, per the filing.

The quarterly earnings reported Wednesday reflected the scope of Boeing’s challenges. The reported loss of $1.44 billion for the second quarter compared with a loss of $149 million a year earlier, the Associated Press reported.

Since the start of 2019, Boeing has lost more than $25 billion.