Due to a series of failures in the Boeing Starliner, the return of the two NASA astronauts has been repeatedly delayed, and the dilemma of being trapped on the International Space Station has become a fact, but the US officials still downplay this, claiming that they will complete two more spacewalks before returning.
1. The dilemma of being in an awkward position
But it is not difficult to see that the current situation of the International Space Station is very embarrassing, first of all, when will the two American astronauts return to Earth? For NASA, the answer to this question is: no hurry. But in fact, the return time has been postponed four times in a row, the starliner was launched on June 5, due to the time limit of the docking window of the International Space Station, it must return to Earth within 45 days, and today is July 1, which means that the 15-day countdown to the return of NASA astronauts has begun!
But NASA's attitude is still unhurried, and it seems to be confident that it can return to the surface safely. A few days ago, NASA also said that the two astronauts could not return immediately for the time being, and there were important tasks to be completed, including two spacewalks. However, embarrassing things seem to happen one after another, on June 24, astronauts Barry Wilmore Dyson and Suni Williams were supposed to walk spacewalk for about 6.5 hours, but after only 31 minutes, problems arose, and it turned out that Dyson's spacesuit coolant leaked and finally had to end the spacewalk.
Next, the problem faced by American astronauts on the International Space Station is to "patch up the seams", find various potential safety hazards and eliminate them, the original spacesuit coolant leakage, is due to the failure of the pipeline connecting the spacesuit, on June 28, NASA's International Space Station program operations integration manager Bill Spage announced that considering the failure of the spacesuit, we will carry out the next extravehicular activity at the end of July.
This means that the ISS spacewalk mission has little to do with the two astronauts, as they spend less and less time on the ISS, reaching their limit on July 20, and if they don't return to Earth before that time, they may not be able to return home!
2. There are three return options to choose from
If Boeing's Starliner returns to Earth with two astronauts in July, the risk is so high that even NASA will have a hard chance of winning.
So what to do with the two astronauts trapped on the ISS? In the author's opinion, there can be three solutions:
One is Russia, after NASA announced the retirement of the space shuttle, for a period of time, it was the astronauts who arrived at the ISS with the Russian "Soyuz" spacecraft, after all, the ISS also has a Russian module module, and the docking interface matches. This should be the first plan, but in terms of the current international situation, the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict has lasted for more than two years, and on June 28, the U.S. government provided Ukraine with a total of $150 million in weapons and ammunition to support Ukraine's defense needs.
The second is China, the space station that is currently in operation in low earth orbit and China's Tiangong space station, so can we help the two American astronauts go home? From a humanitarian point of view, if astronauts from other countries encounter an emergency in space, China will not sit idly by, but at present, NASA is still stubborn, since the beginning of the failure, has not escalated the incident to space rescue, emphasizing that it is to continue the space mission and postponement, and did not put forward the hope that China will send spacecraft to solve the problem, but instead conducts multinational military exercises in the waters around China to strengthen pressure deterrence against China. Second, from an international policy perspective, the U.S. government has formulated the "Wolf Clause" against China, which clearly states that the two countries shall not engage in cooperation in the field of space. Finally, the docking interface of the ISS and the Tiangong space station is different, which means that Chinese spacecraft cannot dock directly to the ISS.
The third is Musk, although Boeing and Musk's Space X company have a competitive relationship, but before the overall national interests of the United States, the author believes that Musk will appear at the most critical moment to avoid the US government from sending a space rescue signal to the world.
3. Plan B is the only "lifesaver"
At the moment, Scott Walter, a doctor of mechanical space engineering, said that the service module of the Boeing Starliner cannot be returned to Earth, which means that it cannot be recovered, and they cannot analyze the problem, and the more time astronauts in orbit have to debug and run different tests, the better.
At the same time, he is confident that "nothing is impossible" and that it is likely that NASA has discussed a potential rescue mission with Space X, and that the commercial "Polaris Dawn mission" scheduled for Space X in July could be part of Plan B to ensure the return of American astronauts.
Michael Lembeck, an associate professor of aeronautical engineering at the University of Illinois in the United States and a former adviser to Boeing's space division, pointed out that NASA and Boeing just need to do their job, and it is too early to find out the root cause of the problem. We must note that the only way to fully study the capsule is to keep the starliner docked on the ISS at the moment.
"I think NASA will think about all possible contingencies in advance, and NASA and Space X may already be discussing how to use the Dragon spacecraft "behind the scenes," Walter said. For the upcoming "Polaris Dawn mission", it is likely to evolve into a space rescue.
It is reported that the "Polaris Dawn Mission" was originally scheduled for July 12.