Astronauts stranded in space due to multiple issues with Boeing's Starliner — and the window for a return flight is closing

Live Science ^ | 6/24/24 | Ben Turner

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Editor's note: NASA announced on Friday that Starliner's troubleshooting has been extended for a third time, meaning that the astronauts will stay aboard the International Space Station indefinitely until some time in July.

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Two NASA astronauts who rode to orbit on Boeing's Starliner are stranded in space aboard the ISS after engineers discovered numerous issues with the Boeing spacecraft. Teams on the ground are now racing to assess Starliner's status.

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were originally scheduled to return to Earth on June 13 after a week on the ISS, but their stay has been extended for a third time due to the ongoing issues.

...Boeing's Starliner capsule successfully blasted off...on June 5. But during the 25-hour flight, engineers discovered five separate helium leaks to the spacecraft's thruster system.

...to give engineers time to troubleshoot the faults, NASA has announced it will push back the perilous return flight, extending the crew's stay on the space station to at least three weeks.

"We've learned that our helium system is not performing as designed," Mark Nappi, Boeing's Starliner program manager, said at a news conference on June 18. "Albeit manageable, it's still not working like we designed it. So we've got to go figure that out."

...NASA and Boeing engineers assess the vital hardware issues aboard the vessel, including five helium leaks to the system that pressurizes the spacecraft's propulsion system, and five thruster failures to its reaction-control system.

After powering the thrusters up on June 15, engineers found that most of these issues appeared to be at least partially resolved, but their exact causes remain unknown. However, the Harmony module's limited fuel means Starliner can only stay docked for 45 days, so the window for a safe return flight is narrowing.

[NorthMountain]

Your alleged quote allegedly from "Former NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe" regarding the allegedly "extraordinary radioactivity" beyond low Earth orbit is at odds with reality. Also, the terminology is wrong ... radioactivity is a property of unstable elements. If that quote were genuine, it would refer to a "radiation environment". I am reminded of anti-gun politicians gibbering about "fully semiautomatic assault weapons"; their scrambled terminology betrays that they don't know what they're talking about.

Your final statement in your post:

"No amount of exposure to radiation can be considered safe."

is also at odds with reality.

[Ann Archy]

I Know.....we were living in Chicago when they moved there.

[MortMan]

I included you in my response because wasdaddy was responding to tyour comment. Have a great day, FRiend.

[Campion]

as was later determined, those crew members—possibly all of them—likely survived the crash and died only many hours later.

I don't know where that came from, but it's malarkey. The Challenger crew may have survived, and even remained conscious, during the midair dissassembly of their spacecraft, but if so, they certainly died instantly during the >200g deceleration they encountered when the crew cabin hit the water 45 seconds or so later.

[Campion]

Anyone who actually took it seriously would live in a lead-lined underground bunker, and never venture forth therefrom

And never, ever eat a banana.

[silverleaf]

Lol!