About ten months ago, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were launched to the International Space Station in the maiden crewed voyage of Boeing’s highly problematic Starliner spacecraft.
Lift-off only came on June 5, 2024, after three scrubs – and the discovery of several helium leaks on the capsule.
Once in space, problems intensified, and the docking procedures with the International Space Station became a huge challenge due to thruster malfunctions.
Futurism reported:
“’I don’t know that we can come back to Earth at that point’, Wilmore [said]. ‘I don’t know if we can. And matter of fact, I’m thinking we probably can’t’.”
NASA reportedly bent its own flight rules to allow Starliner to attempt several times to dock with the station — despite multiple thrusters failing.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were in real danger, about to have to turn around and return to Earth.
While trying to dock with the ISS, the mission was ‘one failing thruster away from losing full control of the capsule’s movement’.
“’We’re single fault tolerant, and I’m thinking, ‘Wow, we’re supposed to leave the space station’, Wilmore [said]. ‘Because I know the flight rules’.
{…] ‘We’re already past the point where we were supposed to leave, and now we’re zero-fault tolerant and I’m manual control. And, oh my, the control is sluggish. Compared to the first day, it is not the same spacecraft. Am I able to maintain control? I am. But it is not the same’.
‘There was a lot of unsaid communication, like, ‘Hey, this is a very precarious situation we’re in’. I think both of us overwhelmingly felt like it would be really nice to dock to that space station that’s right in front of us’.”
Four out of the 28 reaction control system thrusters failed.
“The pair returned on board a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule earlier this month after being stranded on board the space station for nine months. Their original mission was meant to last a mere week.”
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