NASA officials discuss Starliner’s safe return plan, crew roles, and upcoming missions

The Manila Times

NASA officials discuss Starliner’s safe return plan, crew roles, and upcoming missions   At a NASA news conference on Wednesday, September 4, officials updated the status of the Starliner spacecraft. Steve Stich, Manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, confirmed that astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were never stranded on the International Space Station (ISS), with Starliner always available as a return vehicle. They have now transitioned to key roles on the ISS expedition team, Stich explained.    ISS Manager Dana Weigel emphasized that Wilmore and Williams were well-prepared for extended missions due to their comprehensive training in spacewalks and robotics, aiding their smooth transition to full expedition roles.    NASA announced that the uncrewed Starliner capsule would undock no earlier than September 6, after reviewing propulsion issues from its June flight. Due to these glitches, NASA will use a SpaceX vehicle for the astronauts' return next year.    The Starliner's six-hour return journey to White Sands Space Harbor will be managed by ground teams. Despite challenges, NASA is confident in Starliner’s capabilities, citing successful uncrewed landings during previous tests.      REUTERS VIDEO    Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe    Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net     Follow us:  Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook  Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram  Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter  DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion    Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital    Check out our Podcasts:  Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify  Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts  Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic  Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer  Tune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein    #TheManilaTimes  #tmtnews  #NASA  #Starliner

Transcript

00:00How do you define Butch and Sonny's status on the International Space Station?

00:05Yeah, it's interesting. We get a lot of terminology.

00:09I mean, in my view, they were never really stuck or stranded.

00:14They always had a way to depart the space station.

00:18And to me, when somebody is stranded, there's a location where they cannot leave.

00:22And so they had Starliner as the vehicle that they could depart from for a period of time.

00:27Now, Crew 8 is their emergency return vehicle.

00:30And when Crew 9 gets there, that will be their vehicle.

00:33That will be their return vehicle for a nominal and any emergency.

00:36So they're really a part of the expedition.

00:39They've transitioned from their role as Starliner test pilots,

00:42and now they're part of the expedition working day in and day out with Dana and her team.

00:48With intention, we put them through long-duration space station training a few years ago.

00:53And so they finished all the same training that a normal expedition crew would do,

00:58fully qualified in all of the complex areas, spacewalks, robotics, et cetera.

01:04Butch and Sonny have also both done expeditions on board stations,

01:07so they're very familiar with what that looks like.

01:11So we had them well prepared to move into this role.

01:15Really what we need to do now, we have been entirely focused this summer

01:20on understanding what is happening on orbit, trying to decide can we bring the crew back or not.

01:27Once we decided uncrewed, now how do we safely get the vehicle undocked

01:32and landed at White Sands Space Harbor?

01:34I think what we need to do now is really lay out the overall plan, which we have not had time to do.

01:39We haven't because the teams have been so focused on this flight,

01:43laying out that overall search strategy, the overall amount of work we've got to go do.

01:47And then when we do that, we'll have a better understanding of when can we certify the vehicle

01:50and when can we resume flights.

01:53Let's see, since Butch and Sonny have been on board and they were extended,

01:56they already started participating and really helping us out on board station.

02:01They've done over 42 experiments, may actually be more than that by now.

02:05That was when I checked last week.

02:07They had over 100 hours between the two of them helping us on board with science and research.

02:14And so I would say that the change between their short duration mission and an expedition

02:19has been a lot more gradual than you might imagine just because they've been chipping in

02:23and helping along the way.

02:26They are doing the normal exercise regiments that have a high degree of both cardiovascular work

02:36as well as resistance training.

02:40So they're doing the standard amount that we have all crew members do at this point.

02:45Many parts of the flight went extremely well, and Starliner is a great spacecraft.

02:51We know that it performs well.

02:53The life support system is performing very well.

02:55In fact, we have extra oxygen we're going to transfer over the next 24 hours or so,

03:00about 20 pounds of oxygen to the International Space Station to use that oxygen.

03:04So many things on the vehicle are working really well.

03:07What we really need to go do is look at the things that didn't perform the way we expected,

03:12like I talked about the helium leaks.

03:14Can we go fix those leaks, test those on the ground, and have confidence to move forward and fly again?

03:19And the same thing with the thrusters.

03:21We know the thrusters are working well when we don't command them in a manner that overheats them

03:26and gets the poppet to swell on the oxide.

03:29Many of the thrusters, we never saw any degradation at all,

03:32so we know that the thruster is a viable thruster.

03:34It's a good component.

03:36We then not overheat it.

04:06NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

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