As soon as this week, NASA officials will make a crucial decision about the safety of human spaceflight in 21 years. Two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, have been on a test flight that was originally supposed to last just over a week but has now gone on for nearly 10 weeks. The two retired US Navy test pilots were the first people to fly into orbit on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft when it launched on June 5. However, NASA officials are now unsure if Starliner is safe enough to bring the astronauts back home.
Three key managers at NASA and Boeing – Ken Bowersox, Steve Stich, and LeRoy Cain – will be making this decision. They all have experience with past spaceflight tragedies, including the Columbia accident in 2003 that killed seven astronauts. The managers are keenly aware of the risks involved and may be more cautious as a result.
The decision facing NASA’s leadership is whether to bring the two astronauts back home on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft or on a SpaceX Dragon capsule instead. Under normal circumstances, the first option would be preferred because it would cause less disruption to operations at the International Space Station and could potentially maintain a clearer future for Boeing’s Starliner program.
However, some people at NASA are not convinced that this is the right call. Engineers still do not fully understand why five of the Starliner spacecraft’s thrusters overheated and lost power during a test flight in June. While four of these control jets have been brought back online with near-normal performance, managers would like to be sure that the same thrusters will not fail again as Starliner departs the space station and heads for reentry.
Source: https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/08/nasa-is-about-to-make-its-most-important-safety-decision-in-nearly-a-generation/