The Boeing Starliner has returned to Earth with out a crew – a former astronaut explains what this implies for NASA, Boeing and the astronauts still in space

Boeing’s crew transport space capsule, the Starlinerreturned to earth without his two-man crew shortly after midnight Eastern Time on September 7, 2024. Its remote-controlled return marked the tip of a difficult test flight to the International Space Station during which two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams, remained on the station months longer than planned after NASA deemed the capsule unsafe for distant return resulting from engine failures.

Wilmore and Williams will remain on the International Space Station until February 2025 after which return to Earth. in a SpaceX Dragon capsule.

The Conversation US asked the previous commander of the International Space Station Michael Fossum about NASA's decision to return the spacecraft unmanned, the long run of the Starliner program, and the prolonged stay of its crew within the space station.

What does this decision mean for NASA?

NASA receives orders In 2014, Boeing and SpaceX were tasked with providing crew vehicles for the International Space Station as a part of the Commercial Crew Program. At the beginning of this system, most expected Boeing to take the lead resulting from its extensive experience in aerospace.

However, SpaceX was very fast with its recent rocket, the Falcon 9and his Cargo ship, dragonAlthough there have been some initial failures during testing, the corporate continued to construct, test and learn from every mistake. In 2020, SpaceX successfully launched its first test crew to the International Space Station.

Meanwhile, Boeing has struggled with some development setbacks. The consequence of this primary test flight is a serious disappointment for Boeing and NASA. However, NASA leadership has expressed support for Boeing, and plenty of experts, including myself, imagine it stays within the agency's best interest to have a couple of American manned launch system to proceed human space operations.

NASA can be deploying its Exchange partnership with RussiaThis partnership provides the agency with multiple options for delivering crew members to and from the space station.

While space station operations proceed, NASA and its partners have ample options for getting people to and from the station in order that they at all times have the crucial crew on the station – even when one among the manned vehicles experiences launch failures. The Starliner option will help with that redundancy.

What does this decision mean for Boeing?

I imagine that Boeing's status will ultimately suffer. The company is in direct competition with SpaceX. Now the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft has accomplished several flightsIt has proven to be a reliable solution to get to the space station and back.

It's vital to do not forget that this was a test flight for Starliner. Of course, program managers want every test flight to be perfect, but you may't predict every potential problem through ground testing. Not surprisingly, some problems arose – that's to be expected in a test flight.

The space environment is unforgiving. A small problem can have catastrophic consequences in zero gravity. It is difficult to recreate such situations on Earth.

The technology utilized by SpaceX and Boeing can be radically different from the capsule technology utilized in the early days of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs.

NASA has evolved over the past 20 years, making strategic moves to advance its mission. The agency has drawn on its legacy of considering outside the box. Breaking with tradition and leveraging business competitors to advance this system was an progressive move. NASA gave firms a set of necessities and left it as much as them to work out how they might meet them.

What does this decision mean for the crew of the Starliner?

I do know Butch Wilmore And Sunny Williams as rock-solid professionals, and I feel their first thought is to finish their mission safely. They are each very experienced astronauts with experience of long-term space station stays. I'm sure they take this of their stride.

Before joining NASA, Williams was a naval aviator and Wilmore was a combat veteran, so that they each know learn how to manage risks and attain their missions. Such an opposed consequence is at all times possible in a test mission. I’m sure they’ll look forward with a positive attitude and Using your bonus time in space to advance science, technology and space exploration.

The biggest burden is on their families, who were prepared to welcome the crew back home in lower than two weeks and now should adjust to being unexpectedly separated for eight months.

Currently, NASA is coping with a ripple effect because there are more astronauts on the space station than expected. More people mean more consumables – like food and clothing – are needed. The space station has supported a big crew for brief periods of time up to now, but with nine crew members on board, the systems should work harder to purify treated drinking water, Generate oxygen and take away carbon dioxide from their atmosphere.

Wilmore and Williams also devour food. They didn’t arrive with the clothing and other personal items they needed for an eight-month stay, so NASA has already begun increasing their deliveries by cargo ship.

What does this decision mean for the long run?

Human spaceflight is unbearably tough and relentlessly unforgiving. Millions of things should go right for a mission to achieve success. It's not possible to totally understand how systems will perform in a microgravity environment until they're tested in space.

NASA has experienced quite a few failures and near-failures in its try to put Americans on the moon. They lost the Crew of Apollo 1 in a hearth during a pre-flight test. They The first Space Shuttle was launched in 1981 and handled problems throughout the 30-year lifetime of this program, including the terrible losses of challenger And Columbia.

After having no other options for over 30 years, the United States now has three different manned spacecraft programs underway. In addition to the SpaceX Crew Dragon and the Boeing Starliner, NASA Orion spacecraft for the Artemis II MissionFour astronauts are expected to fly across the moon in the following few years.

These programs have encountered setbacks and obstacles along the best way—and there will probably be more—but I haven't been this enthusiastic about human spaceflight since I used to be an 11-year-old cheering for Apollo and dreaming of leaving the primary human footprints on Mars.