NASA: Starliner Will Return Empty, Still Confident in Boeing

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced today that the agency has decided to return Boeing’s Starliner capsule to Earth empty. The two NASA astronauts who flew it up to the International Space Station will remain there until February and return on the next scheduled flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. After talking with Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, Nelson remains confident Boeing will fix the problems and Starliner will fly again with a crew.

Nelson and senior NASA officials told reporters that it was a very difficult decision, but the right one considering continued uncertainty about the performance of the spacecraft’s Reaction Control System (RCS) thrusters.  A lot of progress has been made in understanding why five did not perform as planned during the trip to the ISS, but not enough to mitigate the risk.

Asked if politics played any role in the decision, Nelson replied “unequivocally” no.  The decision was based on safety, “our North Star.”

Nelson and other officials from NASA and Boeing participated in a Flight Readiness Review today where the decision was made. Ken Bowersox, NASA Associate Administrator for Space Operations and a former astronaut, said all of the NASA organizations polled unanimously agreed Starliner should return uncrewed. He identified those organizations as the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC), Flight Operations Directorate, NASA headquarters Division Director for ISS and Commercial LEO Development, ISS Program, Commercial Crew Program, Engineering Technical Authority (Chief Engineer), Crew Health and Medical Technical Authority, Safety and Mission Assurance Technical Authority, and the Directors of the Stennis, Marshall, Johnson, and Kennedy field centers.

Bowersox was aboard the ISS when the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy killed six of his fellow NASA astronauts and Israeli Air Force pilot Ilan Ramon. As a Member of the House of Representatives, Nelson flew on the space shuttle flight immediately before the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger tragedy that killed five NASA astronauts, Hughes Aircraft mission specialist Greg Jarvis, and Teacher-in-Space Christa McAuliffe.

The lessons of Columbia and Challenger weighed heavily in the decision.

This whole discussion, remember, is put in the context of we have had mistakes done in the past. We lost two space shuttles as a result, there not being a culture in which information could come forward. We have been very solicitous of all of our employees that if you have some objection, you come forward. Spaceflight is risky, even at its safest and even at its most routine. And a test flight by nature is neither safe nor routine.

And so the decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring the Boeing Starliner home uncrewed is the result of a commitment to safety. Our core value is safety and it is our North Star.  And I’m grateful to NASA and to Boeing, for their teams, for all the incredible and detailed work to get to this decision. — Bill Nelson

Former space shuttle program manager Wayne Hale, who shares his profound insight into decision-making during that era on his blog, told SpacePolicyOnline.com today that he was “a little surprised that the vote was unanimous. I expected more disagreement. But that certainly made the final decision easier.”

NASA contracted with Boeing and SpaceX in 2014 to build two dissimilar crew space transportation systems to ferry astronauts to and from the ISS through Public-Private Partnerships. Boeing was awarded $4.2 billion, SpaceX $2.6 billion. The agency wanted two systems in order to ensure redundancy in case one was grounded for any reason, and competition since they were not buying the vehicles themselves, but services under a Firm Fixed Price contract. The companies have to pay for any cost overruns, not the government.

Starliner has been troubled-plagued from its first uncrewed Orbital Flight Test (OFT) in December 2019. Boeing had to pay to refly the mission, Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2), which was repeatedly delayed and finally launched in May 2022. This flight test with a crew, the Crew Flight Test (CFT) was also delayed. Boeing must absorb all those costs and so far has spent more than $1.26 billion of its own money on the program.

Nelson said he spoke with Ortberg today and was assured Boeing will fix the problems and not abandon the program “which is very important to NASA, that we have two human-rated vehicles.”  He added he is “100 percent” confident Boeing will fly Starliner with a crew again.

Ortberg just became Boeing CEO two weeks ago.  In a statement, the company said:

“Boeing continues to focus, first and foremost, on the safety of the crew and spacecraft. We are executing the mission as determined by NASA, and we are preparing the spacecraft for a safe and successful uncrewed return.”

Boeing Vice President and Program Manager for Commercial Crew Mark Nappi sent a message to his team saying it wasn’t the decision they hoped for, but they will “carry out the actions necessary to support NASA’s decision” with a focus on ensuring the safety of the crew and the spacecraft.

Asked why NASA continues to support and fund Boeing considering all the problems with Starliner, Nelson replied they need two vehicles, it’s a fixed price contract so NASA is not paying extra, Boeing was one of the two successful bidders, and over many years has proved to be a “great partner.”

The agency has a long history with Boeing on many space programs including the ISS, which Boeing operates under contract, and the Space Launch System rocket. Boeing is the prime contractor for the Saturn V-class rocket, builds the core stage, and is building a new more capable upper stage as part of the Artemis program to return astronauts to the lunar surface.

Though they started at the same time, SpaceX is way ahead of Boeing and has been launching astronauts for NASA to the ISS on a roughly six-month schedule since 2020. They also launch private astronauts to the ISS and other orbital destinations. The eighth operational NASA-sponsored SpaceX Crew Dragon mission, Crew-8, is underway.

The next crew rotation, Crew-9, was recently delayed a few weeks while NASA decided on Starliner’s fate. The earliest it will launch is September 24, returning in February 2025.

The four members of Crew-9 already have been named.  Now two of them will have to wait for another chance to fly so their seats are available for Butch and Suni to come home. NASA has not decided on the new crew complement.

Butch and Suni are experienced NASA astronauts and Navy test pilots. Both have conducted long-duration missions on the ISS already, although this will be longer than their earlier flights. Typical mission durations are about six months, but some have stayed for a year. Most recently, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio set a new U.S. space duration record of 371 days when he unexpectedly remained aboard for an extra six months because a Russian Soyuz spacecraft had to be replaced after losing all its coolant.

The two astronauts are busy doing the same work as the regular crew of seven, conducting science experiments and doing maintenance work. Launched on June 5, they arrived at the ISS on June 6 and were supposed to stay for eight days. Now they will be there for a bit more than eight months.

NASA Flight Operations Director Norm Knight said today the astronauts are demonstrating “patience, adaptability, flexibility, resilience and readiness,” and have fit in “seamlessly” with the regular crew.  He acknowledged it is difficult for their families on the ground, the “pillars that keep them strong,” but they understand and NASA has a support structure for them.

The next step is to decide when Starliner will undock and return to Earth alone.  Unlike SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, which splashes down in the ocean, Starliner lands on land.  Its two primary landing sites are at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico where both OFT and OFT-2 landed.

NASA hasn’t decided exactly when Starliner will undock, only sometime in early September.  Because of the relative positions of the ISS and White Sands, landing opportunities occur four days apart.

In the end, it boiled down to the results of ground tests on a similar RCS thruster that caused teflon “poppet” valves to swell, preventing oxidizer from flowing through. At the same time they discovered heat inside a segment of the propulsion system called a “doghouse” was much higher than expected perhaps because of how they were firing the thrusters plus exposure to heat from the Sun. Of the 28 RCS thrusters, all five that malfunctioned are on the aft end of the spacecraft.

Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich said Aerojet Rocketdyne, which builds the thrusters, “had never seen this before in this particular thruster.”

NASA credited Boeing with creating models of what might be happening, but NASA just isn’t sure enough yet to risk the crew. Bowersox said they really wanted to bring the crew home on Starliner and he thought until a week ago they might be able to get the answers they needed in time, but it was not to be.  “I think unanimously we’re disappointed not to be able to do that.”

Associate Administrator Jim Free summed it up: “This has not been an easy decision, but it is absolutely the right one.”

 

This article has been updated.