NASA Weighs Options for Starliner Crew Return
NASA Weighs Options for Starliner Crew Return
Officials have Not Ruled Out Flight Home on Dragon
NASA officials held a media teleconference Wednesday for an update on the ongoing situation with the Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test, which remains docked to the International Space Station two months after launch.
The option to either bring the crew home on the Starliner or to bring the crew home on another vehicle ... we could take either path.”
Ken Bowersox. NASA
Participating in the conference were Ken Bowersox, associate administrator, Space Operations Mission Directorate, Steve Stich, manager, Commercial Crew Program and Dana Weigel, manager, International Space Station Program. There was no representative from Boeing on the call.
Bowersox said the agency is considering all its options for returning astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams back to Earth. "The option to either bring the crew home on the Starliner or to bring the crew home on another vehicle ... we could take either path, and reasonable people could pick either path," Bowersox said. "Moving forward, what we're trying to do is reduce that uncertainty so we can drive some more consensus among out team. At the same time getting more serious about evaluating our other options."
There has been some question about whether Starliner could be undocked from the ISS without a crew on board. That scenario was addressed by Steve Stitch.
"Starliner has the capability to undock in an uncrewed configuration. However the mission data loads for this flight the flight software we have on board today are set up for a crewed undock, and what that means is in close to station, for docking and undocking the failure response matrix and the software downloads to a crew manual capability for any breakouts," he said. "In order to do the uncrewed version, we'll have to go in and change these mission data loads and verify those through the Boeing integrated hardware software test facility before we go fly that. There would be also additional training that the Boeing flight control team would have to undergo and some work to go lay out all that work. So the software on ... Starliner is fine. It can actually handle the capability to do an uncrewed undock. It's exactly what we did on OFT2. We just have to go configure some software parameters, not change the software to do so."
However, Stitch did reiterate that no decision has yet been made relative to return Butch and Suni on Starliner or Dragon on Crew-9. The agency is working with SpaceX to be sure that a return on the Crew-9 Dragon is feasible. He said that the Dragon capsule has been set up for Crew-9 to bring only two crewmembers to the ISS, and then return with four passengers, including Wilmore and Williams, in February 2025. He said that while the agency is assessing the flexibility of the Dragon capsule to fly the smaller crew, as well as the necessary supplies and space suits that would be needed for Williams and Wilmore to return to Earth on the SpaceX spacecraft.