{"id":1464,"date":"2024-07-11T00:01:59","date_gmt":"2024-07-11T00:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/11\/two-nasa-astronauts-are-stuck-on-the-iss-how-stranded-are-they\/"},"modified":"2024-07-11T00:01:59","modified_gmt":"2024-07-11T00:01:59","slug":"two-nasa-astronauts-are-stuck-on-the-iss-how-stranded-are-they","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/11\/two-nasa-astronauts-are-stuck-on-the-iss-how-stranded-are-they\/","title":{"rendered":"Two NASA astronauts are stuck on the ISS \u2013 how stranded are they?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Two astronauts who have been stuck on the International Space Station (ISS) for over a month are talking to reporters for the first time on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Commander Barry \u201cButch\u201d Wilmore and pilot Sunita \u201cSuni\u201d Williams blasted off on 5 June in Starliner\u2019s first mission to orbit carrying the astronauts.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

After docking on the ISS<\/strong>, the NASA<\/strong> astronauts were supposed to stay in orbit for eight days.<\/p>\n

However, Boeing\u2019s Starliner has been plagued by problems and its return to Earth has been repeatedly delayed.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

During their extended stay on the ISS, the astronauts have been forced to take shelter in the spacecraft when a Russian satellite exploded nearby<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

However, if they needed to evacuate, Starliner may have struggled to get away from the space station.<\/p>\n

The spacecraft\u2019s propulsion system is faulty, which is how it backs the capsule away from the ISS and positions itself to dive through Earth\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Many of Starliner\u2019s thrusters have overheated when fired and leaks of helium, used to pressurise the thrusters, appear to be connected to how frequently they are used, according to NASA\u2019s commercial crew manager Steve Stich.<\/p>\n

How stuck are they?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Boeing insists the astronauts are \u201cnot stuck\u201d and says \u201cthere\u2019s no increased risk when we decide to bring Suni and Butch back to Earth,\u201d according to Mark Nappi, manager of Boeing\u2019s Commercial Crew Program.<\/p>\n

Starliner is able to spend 45 days docked on the ISS, or up to 72 days at a push, relying on backup systems.<\/p>\n

If the astronauts still couldn\u2019t use it to come back to Earth, they could hitch a lift with other crews up there.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s Soyuz spacecraft is due to take three people back to Earth in September and SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon Capsule should return in August.<\/p>\n

Butch and Suni aren\u2019t in \u201cany danger\u201d, according to Mr Nappi and also aren\u2019t even very stuck by space station standards.<\/p>\n

Last year, NASA\u2019s Frank Rubio landed back on Earth after the longest continuous spaceflight by an American, spending a whopping 371 days in orbit.<\/p>\n

His return was delayed for six months because of a coolant leak on his spacecraft.<\/p>\n

Between 1994 and 1995, Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov spent a record-breaking 437 days on the Russian-owned Mir space station, although he always intended to be up there for a long time.<\/p>\n

Starliner delays<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starliner\u2019s problems come after years of delays and failed launches.<\/p>\n

In 2014, NASA asked both SpaceX and Boeing to develop commercial crew capsules, but while SpaceX successfully started shuttling astronauts in 2020, this trip was Boeing\u2019s first crewed launch.<\/p>\n

Boeing\u2019s losses on the Starliner programme are believed to be around $1.5bn (\u00a31.2bn).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on sky.com<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two astronauts who have been stuck on the International Space Station (ISS) for over a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1465,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}