A file photo of Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams on Starliner
| Photo Credit: AFP/NASA

The two astronauts stuck at the International Space Station since June welcomed their new ride home with Sunday’s (September 29, 2024) arrival of a SpaceX capsule.

SpaceX launched the rescue mission on Saturday (September 28, 2024) with a downsized crew of two astronauts and two empty seats reserved for Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams, who will return next year. The Dragon capsule docked in darkness as the two craft soared 265 miles (426 kilometers) above Botswana.

NASA switched Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams to SpaceX following concerns over the safety of their Boeing Starliner capsule. It was the first Starliner test flight with a crew, and NASA decided the thruster failures and helium leaks cropped up after liftoff were too serious and poorly understood to risk the test pilots’ return. So Starliner returned to Earth empty earlier this month.

The Dragon carrying NASA’s Nick Hague and the Russian Space Agency’s Alexander Gorbunov will remain at the space station until February, turning what should have been a weeklong trip for Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams into a mission lasting more than eight months.

Two NASA astronauts were pulled from the mission to make room for Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams on the return leg.

“I just want to say welcome to our new compadres,” Ms. Williams, the space station commander, said once Mr. Hague and Mr. Gorbunov floated inside and were embraced by the nine astronauts awaiting them.

Mr. Hague said it was a smooth flight up. “Coming through the hatch and seeing all the smiles, and as much as I’ve laughed and cried in the last 10 minutes, I know it’s going to be an amazing expedition,” he said.

NASA likes to replace its station crews every six months or so. SpaceX has provided the taxi service since the company’s first astronaut flight in 2020. NASA also hired Boeing for ferry flights after the space shuttles were retired, but flawed software and other Starliner issues led to years of delays and more than $1 billion in repairs.

Starliner inspections are underway at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, with post-flight reviews of data set to begin this week.

“We’re a long way from saying, ‘Hey, we’re writing off Boeing,’” NASA’s associate administrator Jim Free said at a pre-launch briefing.

The arrival of two fresh astronauts means the four who have been up there since March can now return to Earth in their own SpaceX capsule in just over a week, bringing the station’s crew size back down to the normal seven. Their stay was extended a month because of the Starliner turmoil.

Although Saturday’s (September 28, 2024) liftoff went well, SpaceX said the rocket’s spent upper stage ended up outside its targeted impact zone in the Pacific because of a bad engine firing. The company has halted all Falcon launches until it figures out what went wrong.was extended a month because of the Starliner turmoil.

The New York Post reported that Since 1997, American astronauts have been casting their votes from space, thanks to a bill passed by the Texas legislature allowing NASA employees to participate in voting from space. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Stranded on the International Space Station through February, NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore plan to vote in the November 5 U.S. presidential election from space.

“It’s a very important duty that we have as citizens and (I am) looking forward to being able to vote from space, which is pretty cool,” Ms. Williams, who is of Indian origin, said on a call with reporters on Friday (September 12, 2024) afternoon.

Ms. Williams, 58, and Wilmore, 61, participated in a press conference on Friday (September 12, 2024) from the International Space Station (ISS), which has been their home since June. Their Boeing Starliner spacecraft ran into several problems mid-flight and could not bring them home from a planned 8-day voyage.

“I sent down my request for a ballot today,” Mr. Wilmore said. “It’s a very important role that we play as citizens including those elections, and NASA makes it very easy for us to do that,” he said. They, however, did not indicate which presidential candidate – either former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris – would get their vote.

American astronauts have been voting from space since 1997 when the Texas legislature passed a bill allowing NASA employees to vote from space, New York Post reported. That year, NASA astronaut David Wolf became the first American to vote from space on the Mir Space Station. In 2020, NASA astronaut Kate Rubins also performed her civic duty from space on the ISS.

Election officials in Harris County, Texas – where NASA’s Johnson Space Station is located – told NBC News that they work with NASA to send astronauts a PDF with clickable boxes to make their choices. The PDF is password-protected to ensure a secret ballot.

Friday’s (September 12, 2024) press conference came exactly one week after the Starliner returned to Earth – without its crew – to make room on the space station for SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, which is now due to bring the two astronauts’ home in February.

Ms. Williams and Wilmore are living on the ISS with seven other astronauts. They said they feel “grateful” to spend more time in space, despite difficulties.

When asked if it was difficult to see the Starliner leave without them, Ms. Williams said they were tasked with ensuring it left the ISS safely. “We were watching our spaceship fly away,” she said.

Ms. Williams said as she and Mr. Wilmore used to work in the Navy, they are “not surprised when deployments get changed. It’s risky and that’s how it goes in the business,” she said.

When asked if they feel let down by NASA and Boeing, Mr. Wilmore said, “Absolutely not.” Pointing to Ms. William’s t-shirt with a NASA logo, he said: “That represents something that we stand for as an agency – we go beyond, we do things that are out of the ordinary. This is not easy,” he added. He said that 90% of their astronaut training is about preparing for “the unexpected”.

Ms. Williams, who has just been named the commander of the International Space Station, said she was in good spirits.

“We’re here with our friends, we’ve got a ride home,” she said, adding that she is looking forward to the next couple of months on board the ISS.

NASA’s Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams will close the hatches between Starliner and the space station on Thursday (September 5, 2024). 
| Photo Credit: AP

Boeing will attempt to return its problem-plagued capsule from the International Space Station later this week — with empty seats.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said on Wednesday (September 4, 2024) that everything is on track for the Starliner capsule to undock from the space station Friday evening. The fully automated capsule will aim for a touchdown in New Mexico’s White Sands Missile Range six hours later.

NASA’s two stuck astronauts who flew up on Starliner will remain behind at the orbiting lab. They will ride home with SpaceX in February, eight months after launching on what should have been a weeklong test flight. Thruster trouble and helium leaks kept delaying their return until NASA decided that it was too risky for them to accompany Starliner back as originally planned.

Also Read: Explained | What does spaceflight do to the human body?

“It’s been a journey to get here and we’re excited to have Starliner return,” said NASA’s commercial crew program manager Steve Stich.

NASA’s Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams will close the hatches between Starliner and the space station on Thursday (September 5, 2024). They are now considered full-time station crew members along with the seven others on board, helping with experiments and maintenance and ramping up their exercise to keep their bones and muscles strong during their prolonged exposure to weightlessness.

To make room for them on SpaceX’s next taxi flight, the Dragon capsule will launch with two astronauts instead of the usual four. Two were cut late last week from the six-month expedition, which is due to blast off in late September. Boeing has to free up the parking place for SpaceX’s arrival.

Boeing encountered serious flaws with Starliner long before its June 5 liftoff on the long-delayed astronaut demo.

Starliner’s first test flight went so poorly in 2019 — the capsule never reached the space station because of software errors — that the mission was repeated three years later. More problems surfaced, resulting in even more delays and more than $1 billion in repairs.

Also Read: Explained | Significance of Boeing Starliner’s first crewed test flight on May 7,2024

The capsule had suffered multiple thruster failures and propulsion-system helium leaks by the time it pulled up at the space station after launch. Boeing conducted extensive thruster tests in space and on the ground and contended the capsule could safely bring the astronauts back. But NASA disagreed, setting the complex ride swap in motion.

Starliner will make a faster, simpler getaway than planned, using springs to push away from the space station and then short thruster firings to gradually increase the distance. The original plan called for an hour of dallying near the station, mostly for picture-taking; that was cut to 20 or so minutes to reduce the stress on the capsule’s thrusters and keep the station safe.

Additional test firings of Starliner’s 28 thrusters are planned before the all-important descent from orbit. Engineers want to learn as much as they can since the thrusters won’t return to Earth; the section containing them will be ditched before the capsule reenters.

The stuck astronauts — retired Navy captains — have lived on the space station before and settled in just fine, according to NASA officials. Even though their mission focus has changed, “they’re just as dedicated to the success of human spaceflight going forward,” flight director Anthony Vareha said.

The blue Boeing spacesuits will return with the capsule, along with some old station equipment.

NASA hired Boeing and SpaceX a decade ago to ferry its astronauts to and from the space station after its shuttles retired. SpaceX accomplished the feat in 2020 and has since launched nine crews for NASA and four for private customers.

Washington:

Boeing’s first crewed Starliner test flight, carrying NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore, has been stuck in space for the past two months. The journey, originally an eight-day mission, has now completed 80 days in space.

NASA officials will provide an update on the mission on Saturday, August 24, detailing their strategy for bringing the astronauts back to Earth. The press conference is set for Saturday at 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT). It will be headlined by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson along with other agency representatives. You can watch the live telecast on the NASA app and its YouTube channel at 10:30 pm IST.

Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore were sent on an eight-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on June 5. However, the pair’s return was postponed indefinitely due to helium leaks and many thruster malfunctions on the spacecraft. 

To comprehend the technical issues, NASA and Boeing have collected information about the spacecraft’s helium and propulsion systems from both space and the ground.

According to the official statement, the review scheduled for later on Saturday will cover a mission status report, closeout actions, and a review of technical data. It will also certify flight rationale to proceed with undocking and return from the space station.

Meanwhile, Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore have integrated with the rest of the crew currently aboard the International Space Station and are conducting routine tasks.

As part of its private Crew Program, NASA selected two private spacecraft, Boeing’s Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The present trip of Boeing’s Starliner, the Crew Flight Test, is the company’s first of at least six scheduled crewed missions for NASA under the multibillion-dollar contract. SpaceX has performed nine crewed flights for NASA since 2020 apart from numerous private missions of its own).