Starliner issues throw a wrench in NASA’s crew rotation plans

NASA‘s mood toward’s the safety of returning Boeing‘s Crewed Flight Test crew back on Starliner has switched from steadfast support to plans to use SpaceX Dragon for a return flight. However, this has caused drastic changes to both SpaceX‘s and NASA’s launched schedules using its Crew Dragon spacecraft.

For two months now NASA’s Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, both Space Shuttle veterans and currently on their third spaceflight, launched to the ISS on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. Since then teams at Boeing and NASA have been attempting to figure out what caused several thrusters to fail during docking.

What started out as an extended stay before a guaranteed return on Starliner has now turned into a nearly 50/50 split if the two astronauts will return on Starliner or on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. Most of this has come from new test results done by Boeing out at White Sands that showed that valve issues came down to either a teflon tape seal or poppet valve expanding or extruding, causing restricted propellent flow to the thrusters.

If NASA decides to not return Wilmore and Williams on Starliner, the working plan will be to launch SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission with only two crew members. Packed with supplies and suits for their new crew mates, the four will stay on station until next February.

What this means for the members of future crew rotations is unknown. NASA didn’t give any names for who would fly on the two person mission.

In this scenario Starliner would return by itself, however, Boeing will need to update the mission parameters to allow that to happen. Even though Boeing docked and undocked Starliner uncrewed back in 2022, something in the current software suite will not allow that to happen now.

Initially reported by Ars Technica, the update doesn’t sound to be trivial, like how we update our computers and phones, but it has been described as “significant.”

NASA also announced a delay to Crew-9’s launch, all the way back to September 24 to allow for more time to troubleshoot Boeing’s problems. NASA states they will need to make a decision on which path to move down by mid-August.

This also means Crew-8’s departure from the station will be moved to late-September or early-October.

With Crew-9’s delay, that brings Polaris Dawn to be the next crewed flight by SpaceX, now scheduled for August 26. Polaris Dawn will fly Jared Issacman (who is funding the flight), Scott “Kidd” Poteet, Sarah Gillis, and Anna Menon on a free-flying mission around Earth.

Dawn will attempt to achieve two milestones, the highest orbital flight since the Apollo program and the first ever commercial spacewalk. Using specially designed SpaceX suits, the crew will be able to exit the spacecraft through its nose, which usually has a docking port attached.

The last known launch date was a mid-August window and was expected to be delayed further to make way for Crew-9.