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USA Today
a day ago
- Science
- USA Today
Crew-10 astronauts to depart ISS: How they set stage for ‘stuck' Starliner crew to leave
Four Crew-10 astronauts arrived March 15 at the International Space Station, making it possible for NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who crewed the Starliner, to depart. In mid-March, four spacefarers arrived at the International Space Station on a mission that at any other time would have been relatively routine and unremarkable. NASA astronauts Nichole Ayers and Anne McClain were joined by Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov on a mission known as Crew-10 that took on far more significance than most of the regular ventures jointly carried out by SpaceX and NASA. As expected, awaiting the Crew-10 contingent at the orbital outpost were months of scientific experiments tailored to be conducted in microgravity. Crucially, though, the mission also attracted plenty of headlines and fanfare as it cemented its place in spaceflight history for its role in ending the infamous Starliner saga. The Crew-9 team may have arrived in September on a spacecraft with room for the two astronauts who crewed the doomed Boeing Starliner to hitch a ride home. But it was the arrival of the Crew-10 astronauts at the space station that set the stage for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to make their long-awaited homecoming. Now that the Crew-10 astronaut are soon due to depart the space station more than four months later, here's everything to know about the mission and why it made headlines during the Starliner debacle. Remembering the Boeing Starliner: Look back at mission's biggest moments What was the Crew-10 mission? Astronauts relieve 'stuck' Starliner crew The March 15 arrival of Crew-10 astronauts at the International Space Station made it possible for NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who arrived in June on the doomed Starliner, to finally depart. The mission got off the ground the day prior from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The U.S. space agency had originally been working toward a February liftoff before announcing in December 2024 that the mission had been pushed to late-March to give SpaceX more time to prepare a new Dragon capsule. The launch date was then moved back up to mid-March – most likely due to pressure from President Donald Trump and SpaceX founder Elon Musk – when NASA decided to instead use a "previously flown" Dragon. The Dragon spacecraft docked at the orbital outpost following a 28-hour journey, allowing the crew to exit the vehicle and enter the space station through its Harmony module. Once aboard, the four Crew-10 spacefarers officially greeted the Expedition 72 crew members, including the astronauts who flew aboard the Starliner. What happened with the Boeing Starliner? Selected for the inaugural crewed flight of the Boeing Starliner, Wilmore and Williams became fixtures of the news cycle when the vehicle they flew to the space station in June 2024 encountered a series of technical issues. NASA and Boeing ultimately decided that the troubled Starliner capsule wasn't safe enough to crew, and would instead undock and return to Earth with them. On Sept. 28, 2024, NASA launched the SpaceX Crew-9 mission as planned, but with one crucial change: Just two astronauts – Nick Hague of NASA and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov – headed to the space station on a Dragon instead of four to leave two empty seats on their vehicle reserved for Wilmore and Williams. NASA opted to keep Williams and Wilmore at the station a few extra months rather than launch an emergency mission to return them to Earth to avoid having the station be understaffed. Williams and Wilmore eventually departed the space station with the Crew-9 team and safely landed March 17 off the Florida Coast following the arrival of the Crew-10 mission. When will SpaceX launch Crew-11 astronauts on NASA mission? Now, the astronauts of the Crew-10 mission are due to return to Earth themselves following the impending arrival of their own replacements. The Crew-11 mission is due to get off the ground no earlier than 12:09 p.m. ET Thursday, July 31, from near Cape Canaveral, Florida, according to NASA. As the name suggests, Crew-11 is NASA and SpaceX's 11th science expedition to the International Space Station. The missions, most of which last about six months, are contracted under NASA's commercial crew program. The program allows the U.S. space agency to pay SpaceX to launch and transport astronauts and cargo to orbit aboard the company's own vehicles, freeing up NASA to focus on its Artemis lunar program and other spaceflight missions, including future crewed voyages to Mars. Selected for the mission are NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Russian Oleg Platonov, a Roscosmos cosmonaut. SpaceX uses its Falcon 9 rocket – one of the most active in the world – to launch the crew missions from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The astronauts themselves ride a Dragon crew capsule – the only U.S. spacecraft capable of carrying astronauts to and from the space station – which separates from the rocket in orbit. Ahead of the planned launch, the Dragon has been stacked atop the Falcon 9 rocket, which was rolled out Sunday, July 27 to the launch pad before being raised to a vertical position, according to NASA. When will the Crew-10 astronauts depart ISS, return to Earth? The arrival of Cardman, Fincke, Yui and Platonov will ultimately pave the way for their predecessors, the Crew-10 contingent, to depart the space station and head back to Earth. But the Crew-10 astronauts won't leave right away. What follows upon the arrival of any astronauts is a brief handover period in which the new crew members are familiarized with the orbital laboratory and station operations. McClain, Ayers, Onishi and Peskov will then depart a few days later on the same Dragon capsule that transported them to the space station. Mission teams will also have to review weather conditions off the coast of California, where the Dragon will eventually make a water landing. Who else is at the International Space Station? Another three spacefarers are also living and working about the International Space Station as members of Expedition 73. That includes NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, who reached the outpost in April 2025 with cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky. Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Next astronauts could be heading to the space station in week: What to know about Crew-11
The next group of astronauts could be heading to space in a week, where they will relieve a group of spacefarers at the International Space Station who played a critical role in bringing the Boeing Starliner saga to an end. The mission, known as Crew-11, is the latest in a series of joint ventures between NASA and SpaceX to send astronauts to the outpost, where they spend months at a time conducting scientific research only possible in orbit. The four-person crew, which includes two NASA astronauts, are the first humans to fly to space since a relatively brief private voyage known as Axiom Mission 4 came to an end earlier in July after 20 days. The arrival of the astronauts selected for the Crew-11 mission at the space station will also pave the way for four others to leave. Their Crew-10 predecessors arrived at the ISS in mid-March in a headline-grabbing mission that set the stage for the long-awaited departure of the NASA astronauts − Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams − who crewed the ill-fated Starliner space capsule the year before. Here's everything to know about the Crew-11 mission and its impending launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. What is the SpaceX Crew-11 mission? As the name suggests, Crew-11 is NASA and SpaceX's 11th science expedition to the International Space Station. The missions, most of which last about six months, are contracted under NASA's commercial crew program. The program allows the U.S. space agency to pay SpaceX to launch and transport astronauts and cargo to orbit aboard the company's own vehicles, freeing up NASA to focus on its Artemis lunar program and other spaceflight missions, including future crewed voyages to Mars. When was the first NASA, SpaceX Crew mission? What is the Dragon? The first of SpaceX's Crew missions ferrying astronauts to the orbital outpost on its Dragon capsule began in 2020. Standing nearly 27 feet tall and about 13 feet wide, Dragon capsules can carry up to seven astronauts into orbit, though most of SpaceX's Crew missions feature a crew of four. The Dragon is also the only U.S. spacecraft capable of carrying astronauts to and from the space station. For that reason, NASA selected the Dragon to bring home Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the two NASA astronauts who rode the Boeing Starliner capsule to the space station in June 2024 for the vehicle's inaugural human spaceflight test. Certifying the Starliner capsule for operation would eventually give NASA a second vehicle in addition to Dragon for regular human spaceflights to orbit. Who are the astronauts on the Crew-11 mission? The Crew-11 mission includes four spacefarers: Mission commander , a NASA astronaut from Virginia making her first spaceflight Pilot , a NASA astronaut from Pennsylvania making his fourth trip to space Mission specialist , a Japanese astronaut with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut making his second trip to the space station Mission specialist Oleg Platonov, a Russian Roscosmos cosmonaut making his first spaceflight Crew-11 astronauts reassigned after Boeing Starliner failure In an interesting twist, Cardman, Fincke and Yui all experienced major spaceflight assignment changes as a result of the Boeing Starliner debacle. Fincke and Yui were both originally selected to fly on the Starliner's crew rotation mission had the spacecraft's inaugural human flight test in June 2024 been a success. Fincke was also the backup astronaut on a flight test for which Wilmore and Williams were ultimately selected. As for Cardman, she would have flown on the Crew-9 mission in September 2024 before she and NASA astronaut Stephanie Wilson were bumped from the mission. Instead of a full contingent, only NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov traveled to the space station to leave two seats for Wilmore and Williams on the return flight. The decision was made when NASA opted to undock the troubled Starliner capsule without its crew, leaving Wilmore and Williams in need of a ride home. When will NASA, SpaceX launch Crew-11 for ISS? The Crew-10 mission is due to get off the ground no earlier than 12:09 p.m. ET Thursday, July 31, from near Cape Canaveral, Florida, according to NASA. SpaceX uses its Falcon 9 rocket – one of the most active in the world – to launch the crew missions from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Once in orbit, the SpaceX Dragon capsule that the astronauts are aboard then separates from the rocket, using its own thrusters to continue onto the space station. When will the Crew-10 astronauts depart space station, return to Earth? The arrival of Cardman, Fincke, Yui and Platonov will ultimately pave the way for their predecessors, the Crew-10 contingent, to depart the space station and head back to Earth. NASA astronauts Nichole Ayers and Anne McClain arrived March 16 at the station with JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov as part of the Crew-10 mission. That mission made headlines for its role in paving the way for the NASA astronauts who crewed the doomed Boeing Starliner to depart with the Crew-9 mission. But the Crew-10 astronauts won't leave right away. What follows upon the arrival of any astronauts is a brief handover period in which the new crew members are familiarized with the orbital laboratory and station operations. McClain, Ayers, Onishi and Peskov will then depart a few days later on the same Dragon capsule that transported them to the space station. Mission teams will also have to review weather conditions off the coast of California, where the Dragon will eventually make a water landing. Who else is at the International Space Station? Another three spacefarers are also living and working about the International Space Station as members of Expedition 73. That includes NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, who reached the outpost in April 2025 with cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky. Contributing: Brooke Edwards, Florida Today Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@ This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What is Crew-11? SpaceX astronauts prepare for space station mission
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Crew-11 to replace astronauts at ISS who helped 'stuck' Starliner crew return home
The next group of astronauts could be heading to space in a week, where they will relieve a group of spacefarers at the International Space Station who played a critical role in bringing the Boeing Starliner saga to an end. The mission, known as Crew-11, is the latest in a series of joint ventures between NASA and SpaceX to send astronauts to the outpost, where they spend months at a time conducting scientific research only possible in orbit. The four-person crew, which includes two NASA astronauts, are the first humans to fly to space since a relatively brief private voyage known as Axiom Mission 4 came to an end earlier in July after 20 days. The arrival of the astronauts selected for the Crew-11 mission at the space station will also pave the way for four others to leave. Their Crew-10 predecessors arrived at the ISS in mid-March in a headline-grabbing mission that set the stage for the long-awaited departure of the NASA astronauts − Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams − who crewed the ill-fated Starliner space capsule the year before. Here's everything to know about the Crew-11 mission and its impending launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. What is the SpaceX Crew-11 mission? As the name suggests, Crew-11 is NASA and SpaceX's 11th science expedition to the International Space Station. The missions, most of which last about six months, are contracted under NASA's commercial crew program. The program allows the U.S. space agency to pay SpaceX to launch and transport astronauts and cargo to orbit aboard the company's own vehicles, freeing up NASA to focus on its Artemis lunar program and other spaceflight missions, including future crewed voyages to Mars. When was the first NASA, SpaceX Crew mission? What is the Dragon? The first of SpaceX's Crew missions ferrying astronauts to the orbital outpost on its Dragon capsule began in 2020. Standing nearly 27 feet tall and about 13 feet wide, Dragon capsules can carry up to seven astronauts into orbit, though most of SpaceX's Crew missions feature a crew of four. The Dragon is also the only U.S. spacecraft capable of carrying astronauts to and from the space station. For that reason, NASA selected the Dragon to bring home Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the two NASA astronauts who rode the Boeing Starliner capsule to the space station in June 2024 for the vehicle's inaugural human spaceflight test. Certifying the Starliner capsule for operation would eventually give NASA a second vehicle in addition to Dragon for regular human spaceflights to orbit. Who are the astronauts on the Crew-11 mission? The Crew-11 mission includes four spacefarers: Mission commander , a NASA astronaut from Virginia making her first spaceflight Pilot , a NASA astronaut from Pennsylvania making his fourth trip to space Mission specialist , a Japanese astronaut with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut making his second trip to the space station Mission specialist Oleg Platonov, a Russian Roscosmos cosmonaut making his first spaceflight Crew-11 astronauts reassigned after Boeing Starliner failure In an interesting twist, Cardman, Fincke and Yui all experienced major spaceflight assignment changes as a result of the Boeing Starliner debacle. Fincke and Yui were both originally selected to fly on the Starliner's crew rotation mission had the spacecraft's inaugural human flight test in June 2024 been a success. Fincke was also the backup astronaut on a flight test for which Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were ultimately selected. As for Cardman, she would have flown on the Crew-9 mission in September 2024 before she and NASA astronaut Stephanie Wilson were bumped from the mission. Instead of a full contingent, only NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov traveled to the space station to leave two seats for Wilmore and Williams on the return flight. The decision was made when NASA opted to undock the troubled Starliner capsule without its crew, leaving Wilmore and Williams in need of a ride home. When will NASA, SpaceX launch Crew-11 for ISS? The Crew-10 mission is due to get off the ground no earlier than 12:09 p.m. ET Thursday, July 31, from near Cape Canaveral, Florida, according to NASA. SpaceX uses its Falcon 9 rocket – one of the most active in the world – to launch the crew missions from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Once in orbit, the SpaceX Dragon capsule that the astronauts are aboard then separates from the rocket, using its own thrusters to continue onto the space station. When will the Crew-10 astronauts depart space station, return to Earth? The arrival of Cardman, Fincke, Yui and Platonov will ultimately pave the way for their predecessors, the Crew-10 contingent, to depart the space station and head back to Earth. NASA astronauts Nichole Ayers and Anne McClain arrived March 16 at the station with JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov as part of the Crew-10 mission. That mission made headlines for its role in paving the way for the NASA astronauts who crewed the doomed Boeing Starliner to depart with the Crew-9 mission. But the Crew-10 astronauts won't leave right away. What follows upon the arrival of any astronauts is a brief handover period in which the new crew members are familiarized with the orbital laboratory and station operations. McClain, Ayers, Onishi and Peskov will then depart a few days later on the same Dragon capsule that transported them to the space station. Mission teams will also have to review weather conditions off the coast of California, where the Dragon will eventually make a water landing. Who else is at the International Space Station? Another three spacefarers are also living and working about the International Space Station as members of Expedition 73. That includes NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, who reached the outpost in April 2025 with cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky. Contributing: Brooke Edwards, Florida Today Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@ This article originally appeared on Florida Today: When does Crew-11 launch? SpaceX to send 4 astronauts to space station Solve the daily Crossword
USA Today
5 days ago
- Science
- USA Today
Next astronauts could be heading to the space station in week: What to know about Crew-11
The Crew-10 mission is due to launch no earlier than Thursday, July 31 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The next group of astronauts could be heading to space in a week, where they will relieve a group of spacefarers at the International Space Station who played a critical role in bringing the Boeing Starliner saga to an end. The mission, known as Crew-11, is the latest in a series of joint ventures between NASA and SpaceX to send astronauts to the outpost, where they spend months at a time conducting scientific research only possible in orbit. The four-person crew, which includes two NASA astronauts, are the first humans to fly to space since a relatively brief private voyage known as Axiom Mission 4 came to an end earlier in July after 20 days. The arrival of the astronauts selected for the Crew-11 mission at the space station will also pave the way for four others to leave. Their Crew-10 predecessors arrived at the ISS in mid-March in a headline-grabbing mission that set the stage for the long-awaited departure of the NASA astronauts − Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams − who crewed the ill-fated Starliner space capsule the year before. Here's everything to know about the Crew-11 mission and its impending launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. What is the SpaceX Crew-11 mission? As the name suggests, Crew-11 is NASA and SpaceX's 11th science expedition to the International Space Station. The missions, most of which last about six months, are contracted under NASA's commercial crew program. The program allows the U.S. space agency to pay SpaceX to launch and transport astronauts and cargo to orbit aboard the company's own vehicles, freeing up NASA to focus on its Artemis lunar program and other spaceflight missions, including future crewed voyages to Mars. When was the first NASA, SpaceX Crew mission? What is the Dragon? The first of SpaceX's Crew missions ferrying astronauts to the orbital outpost on its Dragon capsule began in 2020. Standing nearly 27 feet tall and about 13 feet wide, Dragon capsules can carry up to seven astronauts into orbit, though most of SpaceX's Crew missions feature a crew of four. The Dragon is also the only U.S. spacecraft capable of carrying astronauts to and from the space station. For that reason, NASA selected the Dragon to bring home Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the two NASA astronauts who rode the Boeing Starliner capsule to the space station in June 2024 for the vehicle's inaugural human spaceflight test. Certifying the Starliner capsule for operation would eventually give NASA a second vehicle in addition to Dragon for regular human spaceflights to orbit. Who are the astronauts on the Crew-11 mission? The Crew-11 mission includes four spacefarers: Crew-11 astronauts reassigned after Boeing Starliner failure In an interesting twist, Cardman, Fincke and Yui all experienced major spaceflight assignment changes as a result of the Boeing Starliner debacle. Fincke and Yui were both originally selected to fly on the Starliner's crew rotation mission had the spacecraft's inaugural human flight test in June 2024 been a success. Fincke was also the backup astronaut on a flight test for which Wilmore and Williams were ultimately selected. As for Cardman, she would have flown on the Crew-9 mission in September 2024 before she and NASA astronaut Stephanie Wilson were bumped from the mission. Instead of a full contingent, only NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov traveled to the space station to leave two seats for Wilmore and Williams on the return flight. The decision was made when NASA opted to undock the troubled Starliner capsule without its crew, leaving Wilmore and Williams in need of a ride home. When will NASA, SpaceX launch Crew-11 for ISS? The Crew-10 mission is due to get off the ground no earlier than 12:09 p.m. ET Thursday, July 31, from near Cape Canaveral, Florida, according to NASA. SpaceX uses its Falcon 9 rocket – one of the most active in the world – to launch the crew missions from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Once in orbit, the SpaceX Dragon capsule that the astronauts are aboard then separates from the rocket, using its own thrusters to continue onto the space station. When will the Crew-10 astronauts depart space station, return to Earth? The arrival of Cardman, Fincke, Yui and Platonov will ultimately pave the way for their predecessors, the Crew-10 contingent, to depart the space station and head back to Earth. NASA astronauts Nichole Ayers and Anne McClain arrived March 16 at the station with JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov as part of the Crew-10 mission. That mission made headlines for its role in paving the way for the NASA astronauts who crewed the doomed Boeing Starliner to depart with the Crew-9 mission. But the Crew-10 astronauts won't leave right away. What follows upon the arrival of any astronauts is a brief handover period in which the new crew members are familiarized with the orbital laboratory and station operations. McClain, Ayers, Onishi and Peskov will then depart a few days later on the same Dragon capsule that transported them to the space station. Mission teams will also have to review weather conditions off the coast of California, where the Dragon will eventually make a water landing. Who else is at the International Space Station? Another three spacefarers are also living and working about the International Space Station as members of Expedition 73. That includes NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, who reached the outpost in April 2025 with cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky. Contributing: Brooke Edwards, Florida Today Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@
Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
'Doghouse' days of summer — Boeing's Starliner won't fly again until 2026, and without astronauts aboard
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Traffic at the International Space Station (ISS) is busy, with spacecraft coming and going almost every few weeks recently. Astronauts with the private Ax-4 mission undocked early July 14 to make way for SpaceX's upcoming Crew-11 mission for NASA, a SpaceX Cargo Dragon left the station at the end of May, and a Russian Progress cargo spacecraft arrived July 5, with its predecessor set to depart next month. By the end of the year, nearly a half-dozen other spacecraft will launch to the ISS, delivering crew, cargo, research and technology demonstrations. It's one of the busiest eras the orbital laboratory has ever experienced, as recent years, especially, have seen a high increase of activity. But absent from the mix of shuffling spacecraft, at least for the rest of 2025, is Boeing's Starliner. The last update provided about the stalled but stalwart space capsule announced a suite of tests set for this summer at NASA's White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico. NASA and Boeing had hoped to have those tests completed and fixes determined to ready Starliner for another flight by the end of this year, but that timeline seems to have slipped. NASA officials say they are now working toward the goal of launching Starliner again no sooner than early 2026. Starliner launched on its first astronaut mission, known as Crew Flight Test (CFT), in June 2024, carrying NASA astronauts Sunita "Suni" Williams and Butch Wilmore to the ISS on a mission expected to last about a week. It wasn't the spacecraft's first flight — Starliner launched on two uncrewed orbital flight tests (OFTs), one in 2019 and the other in 2022. OFT-1 was meant to dock with the ISS, but a software anomaly led to an incorrect orbital insertion burn that prevented the rendezvous altogether. A few inflight hiccups notwithstanding, OFT-2 addressed the issues of its predecessor mission, reached the ISS and successfully paved the way for the spacecraft's first flight with astronauts onboard. On their way to the ISS, Williams and Wilmore put Starliner through its paces, performing a series of maneuvering tests before its final approach and docking with the space station. Unfortunately, their shakedown cruise was a little too shaky. Four protective enclosures known as "doghouses" are mounted around the perimeter of Starliner's service module. Each contains a cluster of reaction control system (RCS) thrusters used for attitude control and fine maneuvering. Starliner's OMAC (Orbital Maneuvering and Attitude Control) thrusters are also located within the doghouses. Both systems use helium pressurization and the same propellants delivered through a shared network of feed lines and valves, creating a complex and interconnected system within each housing. Once CFT was on orbit, Starliner experienced multiple helium leaks traced to components within these doghouses, as well as the in-flight failure of five out of its 28 RCS thrusters. As a result, Williams and Wilmore's stay aboard the ISS was extended multiple times while NASA and Boeing troubleshot the issues from the ground. Out of an abundance of caution, the decision was ultimately made to return Starliner to Earth without the astronauts aboard. Starliner's return happened without incident in September, with the spacecraft successfully parachuting down for an uncrewed landing in White Sands, New Mexico. (NASA would later indicate that the CFT crew would have been fine returning on Starliner, but, as with all things space, better safe than sorry.) Meanwhile, Williams and Wilmore were absorbed into the ISS long-term crew rotation and made part of SpaceX's Crew-9 mission and ISS Expeditions 71/72. They returned with the two otherCrew-9 astronauts aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon Freedom in March, their one-week orbital stay coming to an end more than eight months later than originally expected. By then, NASA and Boeing had performed extensive analyses of the issues inside Starliner's doghouses and slated the affected components for evaluation at NASA's White Sands testing facility this summer. "We know that we get some permeation of oxidizer vapor across [the thrusters], and the seal that we had was not very robust for oxidizer exposure," explained Steve Stich, NASA commercial crew program manager, during a press briefing on July 10. "We have various materials and tests right now to improve that seal on the helium interface at the flange of the thruster." Those tests will help determine a new material for use to prevent those leaks in the future and to provide better insulation from the doghouses' other components and thrusters. To better understand the effects of temperature swings within the doghouses, NASA is performing a series of "pulse trains" designed to cycle through a sequence of thruster burns at varying intensities and frequencies. "We're learning a lot about the differences in the oxidizer valve temperatures," Stich explained. "The thruster has [oxidizer] that comes in on one side and fuel that comes in the other. We're learning a lot about the differences in those temperatures as a function of pulse training." Those tests are designed to inform thermal models for an integrated doghouse test at White Sands, which is expected to begin sometime near the end of next month, according to Stich. "That'll involve a series of RCS thrusters being fired at the same time as our OMAC orbital maneuvering thrusters to understand the heat going into that doghouse," he said. Some improvements to Starliner's doghouses have already been made, Stich indicated, including thermal modifications like the addition of a shunt and other barriers designed to prevent heat from the OMACs radiating back into the housing cluster. "So, we're making a lot of progress in understanding the thermal performance. These will build the informed thermal modeling," Stich said. As for when Starliner might make its way back to the launch pad, it seems 2025 is no longer on the table. "We really are working toward a flight as soon as early next year," Stich said. He added, however, that NASA is hoping to begin crew rotation flights "no earlier than the second rotation spot at the end of next year." NASA crew rotations aboard the ISS typically last six to eight months, lining up two launches per year to ferry astronauts to and from the orbital laboratory. Slating the first crewed, operational Starliner mission for the end of 2026 likely means the spacecraft's next launch won't include any astronauts aboard. "There's a strong chance we'll fly a cargo flight first," Stich said. "What we're really looking at is, can we test all the changes that we are making, to the doghouses in particular, and would we want to validate those in flight first?" he explained. NASA has been eager for Starliner to gain its crew certification. Both Starliner and SpaceX's Crew Dragon were chosen for development in 2014 under the space agency's Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contracts, with the intent of introducing redundant access to low Earth orbit (LEO) for the United States through at least 2030, around when the ISS is expected to be officially decommissioned. Beginning with its cargo variant, SpaceX evolved Dragon into a crew-capable spacecraft and began flying astronaut missions to the space station in 2020. Dragon's eleventh operational NASA crew launch is slated for the end of July. Even with SpaceX's success, though, NASA still sees Starliner as a critical part of the agency's human spaceflight goals in LEO. RELATED STORIES: — How NASA's Starliner mission went from 10 days to 9 months: A timeline — 'There was some tension in the room', NASA says of decision to bring Boeing's Starliner spacecraft home without astronauts — NASA still mulling options for Boeing's troubled Starliner astronaut capsule "Even SpaceX is cheering on Starliner," NASA astronaut Mike Fincke told "The more ways we have to get to space, the more people can fly in space, the better it is for our country," he said. Fincke will serve as mission pilot for Crew-11 when it launches this summer, but his spot as part of the next SpaceX crew was solidified, in part, because of the delays Starliner has faced over the last several years. He was originally assigned to fly as pilot for Starliner-1, and he has therefore trained extensively aboard the Boeing spacecraft. Despite the problems Starliner has faced, Fincke says he would still love to fly aboard the Boeing capsule. "When NASA says it's ready to go fly again with people, I hope they sign me up," he said. Solve the daily Crossword
