According to the latest news from the US media, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Boeing jointly announced that they will further extend the time of the starliner in orbit, which means that the return of the two astronauts to Earth has been postponed again!
Let's first review a few points in time when the Starliner made its first manned mission. The first was the completion of the launch into orbit on June 5, and the two astronauts manually controlled the spacecraft to complete the rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station.
The original plan was for the Starliner to stay on the ISS until June 18, but the return was postponed to June 18 due to a series of problems at hand. However, as the time approached, the core problems of the spacecraft were not resolved, and the return time was postponed to June 25.
But soon news came out that the Starliner would return no earlier than July 2, and the head of the Boeing project also emphasized: The two astronauts were not trapped on the International Space Station, and we simply didn't want to come back, because there were a lot of additional tests to do!
When everyone thought that July 2 was the final date, NASA and Boeing once again stood up and continued to postpone the return time of the starliner, this time without setting a time, to put it bluntly, it was far away!
According to NASA officials, the Starliner technical team is in White Sands, New Mexico, to conduct technical tests of the spacecraft's thruster technology, and these tests will take time, at least only after these tests are completed, and the Starliner will be considered to return home.
Later, Boeing emphasized: We want to make it clear that the two astronauts, Butch and Suni, are not trapped in space and can return safely at any time.
Some netizens couldn't help but joke: What will the nine astronauts on the International Space Station mission in the picture below feel?
The starliner carried two astronauts to the International Space Station and hundreds of kilograms of supplies, which, according to initial information, could be in orbit for two astronauts for 45 days, or around July 20.
If that time is exceeded, the two astronauts will have to eat and drink to preempt the supplies of the other seven astronauts on the normal mission, unless NASA sends the Dragon spacecraft to deliver some additional supplies into the ISS.
Boeing's technical team also mentioned a more interesting topic, they said that the design flight life of the starliner is 210 days, in other words, it is far away, but don't worry, the design life of the starliner is enough to use.
Compared with Musk's Dragon spacecraft, the starliner is really a bit low-level, and key fault points were found before, during and after the launch, and after the docking, and the American media revealed that NASA actually understood some problems with the starliner before the launch, but still launched the starliner head-on.
It is worth noting that in the early morning of June 27, Beijing time, the International Space Station sounded the warning, and all nine astronauts were transferred to the manned spacecraft to standby. If the national space station is damaged and malfunctioning, these astronauts can control the manned spacecraft to leave the national space station and return to Earth at the first time.
The nine astronauts were assigned to three manned spacecraft, of which four were on the Dragon spacecraft and three were on the Soyuz spacecraft, and the remaining two astronauts would naturally take the starliner.
Nine astronauts spent one hour in the manned spacecraft before the crisis was resolved and they returned to the International Space Station.
Space is actually not safe, all the time to face the threat of various meteorite particles, space junk, this time because of the disintegration of scrapped artificial satellites, decomposed more than 100 pieces of debris, although there is no immediate threat, but for the safety of astronauts, or pull up the space junk warning, everyone hid for an hour before returning.
In fact, this emergency is the deadliest, and the Dragon spacecraft and the Soyuz spacecraft can give the other seven astronauts no worries. But the existence of interstellar airliners does not play this role, giving people the feeling that it is unreliable.
Since the launch of the starliner on June 5, there have been major problems, including 5 thruster failures, 5 helium leaks and 1 poor operation of the propellant control valve, these are all problems that have been discovered but have not been completely solved, I don't know why the technical teams of NASA and Boeing are so confident that the completeness of the starliner is no problem, and it can return to Earth with two astronauts anytime and anywhere!
So the question is, what if there is a real emergency? Two astronauts are going to return to Earth on a "defective product"? I can only say that it is too difficult!
Text/Science Black Hole, Image Source: Internet Invasion and Deletion.