NASA is expected to announce as soon as Saturday whether American astronauts stuck aboard the International Space Station (ISS) will be able to return home with the faltering Boeing Starliner spacecraft or have to wait for a SpaceX vehicle — another dilemma. For the embattled rival aircraft manufacturer.
SpaceX plans to launch one of its riskier missions next week, the first private sector spacewalk, with innovative slim spacesuits and an airlock-free cabin.
“NASA’s decision on whether to return Starliner to Earth with astronauts is expected at the end of an agency-wide review before Saturday, August 24,” the space agency said in a statement.
Starliner sent its first two astronauts into space in June, a critical test before getting NASA approval for regular flights. But the capsule sprung leaks and some of its thrusters failed in what was supposed to be an eight-day mission docked to the ISS a few months later.
Agency Administrator Bill Nelson will participate in the agency-wide review, the statement said. For months, Boeing has sought to allay fears of Starliner problems with new test data that the company said confirmed the spacecraft’s safety for astronauts.
NASA weighs that data against a low appetite for risk on the mission, one of four Starliner crashes since 2019.
The agency has prepared a backup plan for the Starliner crew — including veteran NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore — to have two seats on the upcoming SpaceX Crew Dragon mission.
If that option is chosen, Wilmore and Williams won’t come home until the mission is completed in February 2025, meanwhile the Starliner will be brought back to Earth empty.
Boeing struggled to develop the Starliner and compete with SpaceX’s similar but more experienced Crew Dragon.
Boeing has taken a $1.6 billion loss on the Starliner project, bond filings show. The American jet has been reeling in recent years after a spate of accidents involving its 737 Max model, and a horrific incident in January that saw a door panel explode mid-flight on the newest version of the plane, which is still being investigated.
Boeing is under pressure from the upstart SpaceX, created by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, who founded Tesla, the terrestrial electric vehicle maker and now owns social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
Jared Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur, along with a retired Army fighter pilot and two SpaceX employees, will launch on Tuesday in a modified Crew Dragon craft for a mission that includes a spacewalk.
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Two days later, the plan was to make a 20-minute spacewalk 434 miles (698 km) into space. So far, only government astronauts aboard the ISS, which orbits 250 miles above Earth, have attempted to walk into the empty expanse of space.
SpaceX’s five-day mission, called Polaris Dawn, will swing into an oval-shaped orbit, get as close as 118 miles to Earth and as far as 870 miles — the distance no humans have gone since the end of America’s Apollo lunar program. In 1972.
A modified craft will have the crew wear thin spacesuits so it can open its hatch door in the vacuum of space — an unusual procedure that eliminates the need for an airlock.
“They’re pushing the envelope in a lot of ways,” retired NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman told Reuters in an interview. “They go to much higher altitudes with a much harsher radiation environment than what we went through from Apollo.” Isaacman created the mission at an estimated cost of $100 million.
Isaacman will be accompanied by mission pilot Scott Poteed, a retired US Air Force lieutenant colonel, and SpaceX senior engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon.
“There’s not a lot of room for error,” Reisman said.
