NASA today held a briefing on the manned test mission of the Boeing Starline spacecraft, and there is still no definite news on when the two American astronauts, who have worried hundreds of millions of people, will return to Earth.
NASA and Boeing officials say they will not set a date for the return of Starline, nor for astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, until the Starline spacecraft completes additional testing to better understand thruster failures and helium leaks.
NASA officials also stressed that the astronauts are not trapped in space and that they will send them home at the right time, but that there is still some work to be done. Ground-to-space comparisons of thruster failures and helium leaks are currently being tested in hopes of permanently resolving the issue, so the spacecraft's return may be delayed by at least "a few weeks".
Boeing officials felt more aggrieved, complaining that they were very saddened by the negative media coverage of astronauts being trapped in space, because so far they had completed a very good test flight, but the reviews were quite negative.
Maybe it's all under control, but who knows if it's really in control? NASA and Boeing say there is 10 times more helium on the spacecraft than it takes to complete the landing mission, so there is no need to worry about leaks, but it is also true that five of the 28 maneuvering thrusters on board the spacecraft have failed, and one has so far been unable to repair, which is the real problem.
Is there anything to do with the helium leak due to the thruster failure? We know that the role of helium is to pressurize the propellant so that it can be delivered to the rocket engine in a timely and accurate manner, and if the leakage causes insufficient pressure, it will directly affect the normal operation of the thruster, and then affect the orbit adjustment and attitude control of the spacecraft, which will definitely be fatal.
If it was useful to complain, the elimination would not have happened, did Neanderthals complain when they were eliminated in 40,000 years? Boeing may also need to rethink.
本文参考路透社报道：Boeing Starliner's return from space to hinge on weeks of more testing