NASA aims to restore space station traffic after SpaceX, Boeing problems

NASA officials said on Friday that they expected congestion at the International Space Station in the coming month, following a couple of weeks in which it seemed that the agency’s ability to transport astronauts to and from orbit was stuck in a holding pattern.

But the officials portrayed the orbital traffic jam as a good thing.

“We have never had so many vehicles and so many options,” Ken Bowersox, the associate administrator who leads NASA’s space operations mission directorate, said during a news conference Friday. “It complicates our lives, but in a really good way.”

Operations at the space station have been more eventful than usual lately. A new Boeing spacecraft experienced propulsion problems en route to the space station. The astronauts on the station had to shelter for a while after a defunct Russian satellite disintegrated. A couple of spacewalks were called off because of problems with the spacesuits. And the question of when SpaceX could next fly more astronauts emerged after a rocket’s failure in orbit.

Those problems may now be clearing up.

Agency officials said the next launch of a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, the ninth mission by SpaceX to take four astronauts for a six-month stay at the space station, or Crew-9, is scheduled for no earlier than Aug. 18.

But before that crew can head to space, the plan is for Starliner, a troubled spacecraft built by aerospace giant Boeing that is now docked at the space station, to finally return to Earth with two NASA astronauts. The astronauts on the Starliner test flight, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, have been on the space station for weeks longer than originally planned as engineers diagnosed issues with the spacecraft’s propulsion system.

After the next Crew Dragon launch, another Crew Dragon, which is now docked at the space station, is scheduled to bring home four of the station’s current occupants, ending their six-month stay.

NASA has to juggle the comings and goings because there are only two ports at the space station where the Crew Dragon and Starliner can dock. With Starliner and one Crew Dragon already there, someone has to leave before the next Crew Dragon can arrive.

“I’ve got to take off a vehicle,” said Dana Weigel, the program manager for the space station at NASA. “And so our plan is undock Starliner first to free up a port.”

During an earlier news conference Thursday, Steve Stich, the program manager of NASA’s commercial crew program, and Mark Nappi, who leads the Starliner efforts at Boeing, said they were closing in on understanding what had gone wrong with Starliner’s propulsion system, which caused some thrusters to malfunction as it approached for docking in June.

Ground tests of a Starliner thruster indicated that the buildup of heat had caused Teflon seals to bulge and constrict the flow of propellant.

Meanwhile, examination of a test version of a Starliner service module – a cylindrical component below the capsule where the astronauts sit – revealed that seals in the helium system had degraded because of exposure to propellant vapor.

The spacecraft’s problems followed a series of earlier setbacks for Starliner, thwarting NASA’s goal of having two companies providing rides for its astronauts.

Competition, the space agency believes, will help keep prices in check. It also provides a backup in case something goes wrong. SpaceX, the other company that NASA hired, has been launching NASA astronauts to space for the past four years.

NASA and Boeing officials insisted there was no danger to Williams and Wilmore. They said they wanted to take the time to study the capsule’s problems in detail so that they could be fixed for future missions.

While Boeing has faced heavy scrutiny over the issues with Starliner, SpaceX also suffered a failure, after years of success for its Falcon 9 rockets and Crew Dragon spacecraft.

On July 11, during a routine launch of the company’s Starlink satellites, the second stage of a Falcon 9 rocket experienced a liquid oxygen leak and deployed the satellites in the wrong orbit.

This was the first failure of a Falcon 9 rocket since 2016, when one exploded on the launchpad. Between that explosion, which destroyed an Israeli satellite, and the malfunction Thursday, SpaceX had enjoyed a streak of more than 300 successful Falcon 9 flights.

In an update Thursday, SpaceX said the leak had occurred in a line used by a liquid oxygen pressure sensor. The short-term fix is to remove the line and the sensor.

On Thursday, the Federal Aviation Administration gave SpaceX permission to resume Falcon 9 launches after it concluded that the problem that had caused the failed flight had not posed a danger to the public. The next Falcon 9 launch, of another batch of Starlink satellites, is scheduled for Saturday at 12:21 a.m. Eastern time from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Stich said NASA was working with SpaceX to ensure that the design fixes for the rocket were sufficient to ensure the safety of the astronauts on the next Crew Dragon mission.

The Starliner docked at the space station also now faces one more critical test this weekend. Its thrusters will fire briefly, allowing engineers to evaluate their performance and determine if the helium leaks have worsened. If that test goes well, NASA will perform a final review before approving Starliner’s return to Earth.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.