SpaceX will rescue astronauts on the ISS, Boeing loses face again

TPO - Billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX will use its spacecraft to bring astronauts stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) back next year. This becomes a new setback for rival Boeing, and raises questions about how NASA will staff the orbiting laboratory in the future.

A rocket carrying Boeing's Starliner spacecraft and two astronauts to the ISS blasts off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, on June 5. (Photo: Reuters)

Boeing's faulty Starliner spacecraft will return to Earth in early September without any crew, the US space agency said at a press conference on August 24.

Under the backup plan, NASA astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams will hitch a ride aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft on a six-month mission, dubbed Crew-9, scheduled for late September. They will return to Earth in February next year, months later than planned.

"The decision to keep Butch and Suni on the International Space Station and return the Boeing Starliner without anyone on board demonstrates a commitment to safety," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told reporters, recalling the agency's loss of two previous space shuttle crews.

Starliner will launch again with a crew, Nelson said.

This is another blow to the Starliner program. In 2019, Boeing’s unmanned test flight to the ISS failed to reach the destination as planned. Years of delays and problems cost the company another $1.6 billion.

As a result, Boeing is about seven years behind in its plans to send its first crew into orbit on the Starliner, while rival SpaceX regularly flies NASA astronauts on the Crew Dragon spacecraft. Now Boeing has once again lost face by letting its rival return astronauts to Earth when the Starliner was supposed to.

Astronauts Wilmore and Williams arrived at the ISS on Boeing's CST-100 Starliner test flight on June 6, initially expected to stay for only about a week, but ended up staying in orbit for eight months.

Boeing is facing questions about its future partnership with NASA. The Starliner crewed flight to the ISS is part of a crucial testing phase to determine whether the company’s spacecraft can regularly ferry people to and from the ISS.

Like billionaire Musk's SpaceX, Boeing has a contract with NASA to regularly fly crews to the ISS until the station is scheduled to retire in 2030.

Binh Giang

According to Bloomberg

Source: https://tienphong.vn/spacex-se-giai-cuu-cac-phi-hanh-gia-tren-iss-boeing-them-mat-mat-post1666791.tpo