NASA has decided it’s too risky to bring two astronauts back to Earth in Boeing’s troubled new capsule. They’ll have to wait until February for a ride home with SpaceX.
Well, technically they’re stuck, because I don’t think there’s enough seats to get everyone home without the Boeing capsule, until a SpaceX one arrives in 6 months.
Yes, there’s currently more crew than seats if you exclude the Starliner. In an emergency, I’m sure they could strap Wilmore and Williams into the Crew Dragon and/or Soyuz MS capsules somewhere, if they really had to. NASA likes to run every possible scenario, so I’m sure they already have a contingency plan for that.
Assuming they don’t want to use the Starliner capsule for some reason. I haven’t heard of any actual risk with using it.
Edit: I decided to actually read the article. They’d squeeze them into the Crew Dragon if they had to. And the problem with the Starliner isn’t just helium leaks like I’d heard, it’s also thruster seals swelling and blocking their own propellant. Thrusters are kind of important for attitude control.
Their backup plan is to have the extra 2 astronauts lie on the floor of the Crew Dragon and reenter without suits. Yep. That’s still safer than Starliner.
Quick correction, the SpaceX Crew-9 is scheduled to depart in 6 months. It will arrive (with two empty seats) in September. So Suni and Butch will only be “stuck” for the few days between when Starliner undocks and when the Crew-9 capsule arrives.
Well, technically they’re stuck, because I don’t think there’s enough seats to get everyone home without the Boeing capsule, until a SpaceX one arrives in 6 months.
Yes, there’s currently more crew than seats if you exclude the Starliner. In an emergency, I’m sure they could strap Wilmore and Williams into the Crew Dragon and/or Soyuz MS capsules somewhere, if they really had to. NASA likes to run every possible scenario, so I’m sure they already have a contingency plan for that.
Assuming they don’t want to use the Starliner capsule for some reason. I haven’t heard of any actual risk with using it.
Edit: I decided to actually read the article. They’d squeeze them into the Crew Dragon if they had to. And the problem with the Starliner isn’t just helium leaks like I’d heard, it’s also thruster seals swelling and blocking their own propellant. Thrusters are kind of important for attitude control.
Their backup plan is to have the extra 2 astronauts lie on the floor of the Crew Dragon and reenter without suits. Yep. That’s still safer than Starliner.
They will have suits. There is a spare on the ISS, and Dragon will bring another one up. They covered that in the press conference.
I meant for the 3 weeks between when Starliner leaves and the Crew 9 Dragon gets there.
Quick correction, the SpaceX Crew-9 is scheduled to depart in 6 months. It will arrive (with two empty seats) in September. So Suni and Butch will only be “stuck” for the few days between when Starliner undocks and when the Crew-9 capsule arrives.