{"id":2854,"date":"2024-08-14T21:00:39","date_gmt":"2024-08-14T21:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/14\/nasa-says-it-has-still-not-decided-how-to-bring-two-stuck-astronauts-back-to-earth\/"},"modified":"2024-08-14T21:00:39","modified_gmt":"2024-08-14T21:00:39","slug":"nasa-says-it-has-still-not-decided-how-to-bring-two-stuck-astronauts-back-to-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/14\/nasa-says-it-has-still-not-decided-how-to-bring-two-stuck-astronauts-back-to-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA says it has still not decided how to bring two stuck astronauts back to Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASA has said it has still not decided how to bring home two astronauts from the International Space Station (ISS) after their spacecraft developed faults on their outward voyage.<\/p>\n

In a news conference on Wednesday, the space agency said Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who arrived at the ISS in June expecting to be there for eight days, may yet have to stay until February.<\/p>\n

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The astronauts arrived there on a Boeing Starliner \u2013 the first crew to use the craft.<\/p>\n

But the vessel suffered thruster failures and helium leaks en route, raising doubts about whether it could carry them back to Earth safely \u2013 leaving the pair in space limbo.<\/p>\n

The thrusters are crucial for holding the capsule in the right position when it comes time to descend from orbit.<\/p>\n

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If NASA decides not to use the Starliner, which Boeing has said is able to return them safely, they would catch a ride on SpaceX\u2019s next flight, which would mean staying at the space station until next Februar.<\/p>\n

But by that point, they will have been in space for eight months.<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s<\/strong> <\/strong>space operations mission chief Ken Bowersox told reporters they are analysing more data before making a decision \u2013 either by the end of next week or the beginning of the next.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWe\u2019ve got time available before we bring Starliner home and we want to use that time wisely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Switching to SpaceX would also involve standing down two of the four astronauts due to be on board the SpaceX flight, currently scheduled for late September.<\/p>\n

Wilmore and Williams would take the empty seats in SpaceX\u2019s Dragon capsule once that half-year mission ends.<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s safety chief Russ DeLoach added: \u201cWe don\u2019t have enough insight and data to make some sort of simple, black-and-white calculation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr DeLoach said the space agency wants to make room for all opinions, unlike what happened on NASA\u2019s two shuttle tragedies, Challenger and Columbia, when dissenting views were ignored.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat may mean, at times, we don\u2019t move very fast because we\u2019re getting everything out, and I think you can kind of see that at play here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

One complication is that the space suits they used to travel to the ISS on Starliner would not be suitable on the SpaceX craft, if it\u2019s used to take them home, meaning they may have to return to Earth suitless.<\/p>\n

The BBC, quoting Joel Montalbano, NASA\u2019s deputy associate administrator, said: \u201cThey would come unsuited in the [SpaceX] Crew Dragon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another problem is that the space station has just two parking places for US craft, so Boeing\u2019s capsule would have to leave before the SpaceX Dragon arrived in order to free up a spot.<\/p>\n

Wilmore and Williams are retired navy captains who spent months aboard the space station years ago, been helping with experiments and repairs since they arrived.<\/p>\n

NASA chief astronaut Joe Acaba said: \u201cThey will do what we ask them to do. That\u2019s their job as astronauts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis mission is a test flight and as Butch and Suni expressed ahead of their launch, they knew this mission might not be perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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

NASA has said it has still not decided how to bring home two astronauts from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2855,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2854","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\/2854","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=2854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}