WASHINGTON: The first astronauts to fly Boeing’s troubled Starliner are definitely not “stranded” at the International Space Station, NASA insisted Friday despite having no clear timeframe for bringing them home.

In an unusually defensive press call, officials attempted to put a positive spin on where things currently stood after weeks of negative headlines due to the spaceship’s delayed return.

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams blasted off on June 5 following years of delays and safety scares affecting Starliner, as well as two aborted launch attempts that came as astronauts were strapped in and ready to go.

They docked the following day for what was meant to be roughly a week-long stay, but their return has been pushed back multiple times because of thruster malfunctions and helium leaks that came to light during the journey.

“Butch and Suni are not stranded in space,“ declared Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial crew program manager.

He added the pair were “enjoying their time on the space station” and “our plan is to continue to return them on Starliner and return them home at the right time.”

Before that can happen, however, ground teams need to run more testing to better understand the root causes.

It was known there was one helium leak affecting Starliner before the launch, but more leaks emerged during the flight. While non-combustible, helium provides pressure to the propulsion system.

Separately, some of Starliner’s thrusters that provide fine maneuvering initially failed to kick in, delaying docking. Engineers are not sure why Starliner’s computer “deselected” these thrusters, though they were able to restart all but one of them.

The thruster testing could begin July 2 and would last at least two weeks, said Stich.

“It is pretty painful to read the things that are out there,“ added Mark Nappi, Boeing’s vice president and program manager of its Commercial Crew Program.

“We’ve gotten a really good test flight that’s been accomplished so far, and it’s being viewed rather negatively.”

Teething issues with new spaceships aren’t uncommon, with the Space Shuttle program facing its share of problems in its early days.

But the Starliner program has suffered from comparisons to SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. Both companies were awarded multibillion dollar contracts in 2014 to provide the US space agency with rides to the ISS, with SpaceX succeeding in 2020 and carrying dozens of people since.

Aerospace giant Boeing’s reputation has also nosedived in the wake of the safety scandal surrounding its 737 Max passenger jets.

Source link

In a rare stroke of celestial coincidence, two lumpy asteroids – one that could destroy a city, the other big enough to wipe out the planet – are zooming by Earth, close enough to excite observers but posing zero risk of hitting us.

Asteroids in our neighborhood always ignite interest, but these two are special because of their timing, size and orbits.

Their separate-path visits came 42 hours apart and, in yet another fluke, just ahead of this year’s Asteroid Day. That’s the annual observance of the Russian Tunguska meteor event in 1908, the largest asteroid impact in modern history.

Read more: When were asteroids detected?

Though their orbits are considered close to us in astronomical terms, neither was visible to the unaided eye.

When will asteroid pass Earth?

One of them has already come and gone: Asteroid (415029) 2011 UL21, a chunk of rock the size of Mount Everest, passed closest to Earth without incident on Thursday.

The second, asteroid 2024 MK, will arrive Saturday morning.

Though it’s much smaller than its companion, at 400 to 850 feet long, 2024 MK will come much closer to Earth. It’ll pass between us and the moon at a distance of about 180,200 miles. The moon is 238,900 miles from Earth.

Though larger, 2011 UL21 came no closer than 4.1 million miles to us.

How do the asteroids compare in size?

2024 MK is about the size of Dimorphos, an asteroid NASA used in its first-ever successful planetary defense test about two years ago. The space agency crashed a 1,260-pound NASA spacecraft into Dimorphos, 7 million miles away, and altered its orbit by 32 minutes.

Where can I see asteroid 2024 MK?

You may be able to see the asteroid sometime Saturday with a telescope or a pair of strong binoculars, Smithsonian Magazine says. Those in Hawaii and South America have the best viewing opportunities. It might also be seen from the southern continental U.S. The asteroid’s closest approach was at 9:46 a.m. Eastern time. It may be possible to see it Saturday night after the sun sets.

Contributing: Cybele Mayes-Osterman

Source: USA TODAY Network reporting and research; NASA; European Space Agency; earthsky.org; asteroidday.org; space.com; Reuters; sciencealert.com

Source link

Boeing’s leaky Starliner space capsule is poised to hang out at the International Space Station even longer, NASA told reporters Friday.

The troubled vehicle is one of two that the agency selected through its Commercial Crew program to ferry astronauts to space. While the other vehicle NASA selected, the SpaceX Crew Dragon, has already completed several missions transporting astronauts to the ISS and back, Starliner’s history has been full of false starts.

During the current mission, which was the first to see Starliner carrying humans, issues emerged with the vehicle thrusters and a helium leak. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were meant to stay at the ISS for just over a week before riding Starliner back home, but now appear slated to extend that stay beyond a fourth week, if not much longer.

“We’re still in the middle of a test mission,” Ken Bowersox, associate administrator at NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate told reporters on a call Friday, explaining that the team is waiting for conditions to be right to bring Starliner home.

“I want to make it very clear that Butch and Suni are not stranded in space,” added Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew program manager. “We’re not in any rush to come home.”

Boeing’s Mark Nappi said there are no new issues or problems to report with Starliner.

“We’ve gotten a real good test flight that’s been accomplished so far,” he said. “We can return with Starliner at any time.”

Nappi said that Boeing currently understand the issues with the vehicle well enough to deal with them and still have a safe return, but not well enough yet to fix them permanently.

Stich noted that the two astronauts can use Starliner as their “lifeboat” vehicle in the case of an emergency, a use that was put into practice earlier this week when orbital debris from a dead Russian satellite was spotted. The debris was at a lower altitude than the ISS, and the astronauts returned to normal duties after spending about an hour in their vehicles out of an abundance of caution.

Previously there was discussion that Starliner was limited to a 45 day visit at the ISS, but Stich said this limitation was linked to the vehicle’s batteries, which have been performing well and getting successfully recharged while in orbit. He said the vehicle was originally designed for a 210-day mission and that he expects the limit to be extended beyond 45 days.

Source link