The astronauts have not yet returned to Earth!
The fate of the Starliner is sealed! As of now, the crew remains on the International Space Station. So, what’s the plan?
Space is a place that emphasizes the danger of flights into the unknown vast universe surrounding us.
Let’s never forget the fact that space is a dark, cold and deadly environment that does not forgive mistakes.
It’s always been like that, it’s like that now and it will stay like that forever.
Man’s journey into space is not a routine with no threats. We are still vulnerable and naïve, no matter the amount of preparation. Twenty-one people paid for it with their heads, so far, seventeen American astronauts and four Soviet cosmonauts.
The American piloted spacecraft of the new generation, Boeing’s Starliner, took B. Wilmore and S. Williams to the ISS in early June with problems. They were supposed to stay there for a week and return with the ship to Earth. It was the first test flight of this type of manned spacecraft. The problems started already when reaching the ISS.
After checking and processing the data, an uncontrolled leakage of fuel and gases from the spaceship was established. Since then, Boeing and NASA experts have been trying to find solutions and implement them so that the Starliner could return the crew to Earth.
The problems are big, there is no reliable solution, and it is almost certain that the Starliner will be released in a jobless regime in the coming time. Returning the ship without its crew is not something you want, but it is the only logical and realistic solution.
If there is a loss of living conditions inside the ship or a complete loss of the Starliner, it will mean at least two more years of work and testing before a new attempt with a human crew.
In recent years, Boeing’s statistics of layoffs, from civil and military aviation to spacecraft, have not been going well. Somewhere in the system, something nasty went in the wrong direction…
How will the astronauts return to Earth?!
So far, the solution presented is that they can come back with the SpaceX Crew Dragon 8. The ship has a crew of four and room for two more people, but in that case Wilmore and Williams would be placed in improvised seats and on top of that, they would be without an astronaut suit!
There is an unconfirmed possibility that the Cygnus transport ship has already brought SpaceX-type suits in its cargo hold for these two “stealth passengers”. If this is not the case and it is estimated that the return of astronauts without a suit is not an option, the next opportunity is in eight months.
Then the SpaceX Crew Dragon 9 would be fully adapted for six passengers. There are also logistical problems with the unplanned “surplus” of two people at the ISS.
More food, water, air, garbage, the unplanned pre/long occupation of the docking space that cannot be used now because of the Starliner are not at all naïve problems for the planners of operations on the ISS.
Servicing a space station in Earth’s orbit is a logistical nightmare. Operation planners must and do take care of everything in advance. Partly because the ISS is entirely dependent on logistics from the home planet.
Let’s remember, when a human moves away from Earth, the space in which they will live, and work must ensure self-sufficiency!
We cannot allow ourselves that due to, for example, two unsuccessful launches, people on the Moon die from lack of air, water, food, and medical assistance. The work of astronauts, cosmonauts, taikonauts is dangerous. Sadly, for now the crew remains on the ISS. We hope that a solution emerges soon enough.
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