I believe everyone still remembers that on June 5, the United States Boeing launched a "Starliner" manned spacecraft to send 2 United States astronauts to the International Space Station.
This is the first manned mission of the Starliner spacecraft, and two unmanned flight tests have been carried out before, but there have been problems with previous unmanned test flights, and these problems have not been solved.
Even during the first manned mission, the Starliner spacecraft successfully arrived at the International Space Station, but there were problems during the flight, such as helium leakage and thruster failure.
The Starliner spacecraft's first manned mission was originally scheduled to end on June 14 and return to Earth from the International Space Station, but due to a series of problems such as spacecraft malfunction, the spacecraft has not yet returned. Since launch, the Starliner has flown for 2 months, which also means that the two United States astronauts have been trapped on the ISS for 2 months, and it is still uncertain when they will return safely.
United States Steve · Stick, head of NASA's commercial manned program, said there are still a lot of questions to be clarified before the Starliner spacecraft returns. He said that the helium leak is intertwined with the thruster problem and is an extremely complex problem.
In addition, it is also necessary to consider the working conditions of a series of equipment such as guidance, navigation, and control systems of the spacecraft, and it is necessary to understand the details in order to assess whether the spacecraft is ready to return home. Since the issue of the spacecraft has not been properly resolved, there is no new information about when and how the two United States astronauts trapped on the International Space Station will return to Earth.
Although it is already known that the "Starliner" spacecraft does have problems such as helium leakage and thruster failure, NASA still hopes that the two astronauts will finally return home on the "Starliner". The two astronauts also said that even if the mission did not go well, as long as the problem of the spacecraft's thrusters was solved, they were still confident in the spacecraft and believed that they could successfully return to Earth.
Theoretically, this starliner spacecraft can dock with the ISS for up to 90 days with the backup system, so in terms of time, the spacecraft still has about 30 days to go.
Regardless of whether the ship's problems can be properly resolved, it will be evacuated from the ISS in a month's time, and it is uncertain whether the two astronauts will return directly on the problematic Starliner spacecraft or on the SPaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.
There was also a problem with the launch of the cargo spacecraft
Just when everyone was concerned about how the two astronauts returned, the United States launched another spacecraft, and the spacecraft also had problems during this mission. However, the newly launched spacecraft is not a manned spacecraft, but a Cygnus cargo spacecraft United States Northrop Grumman.
On August 4, local time, SPaceX launched a Falcon 9 launch vehicle to send the Cygnus cargo spacecraft into space. The Cygnus cargo spacecraft also ran into trouble shortly after launch, with an ignition failure in orbit due to low initial engine pressure. However, NASA said there was nothing wrong with the spacecraft's engines themselves.
During this mission, the Cygnus cargo spacecraft carried a total of about 3,720 kilograms of supplies, including daily necessities for the astronauts of the International Space Station, various scientific instruments and equipment, and two small cube satellites. Although there were problems with the spacecraft after launch, the United States Space website reported that the Cygnus cargo spacecraft successfully arrived at the International Space Station on the morning of August 6 and was caught by the robotic arm of the International Space Station.
Now the Cygnus cargo spacecraft has successfully arrived at the ISS with nearly 4 tons of supplies, so there will be no food shortages and other problems on the ISS due to the temporary inability of the two astronauts of the "Starliner" spacecraft to return. According to the plan, the Cygnus cargo spacecraft will be evacuated from the ISS in January 2025 and then violently burned to ashes during re-entry.
The return of the spacecraft was thrilling
The Starliner spacecraft has been docked at the International Space Station for nearly 2 months, and the return time is still far away, and until the problem is solved, the two astronauts cannot return on this spacecraft, and if necessary, they still need to take the SPaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, or take the Soyuz manned spacecraft of Russia.
Because the process of returning to the spacecraft is too dangerous, it can be said to be thrilling. You must know that the Tianzhou cargo spacecraft, the Cygnus cargo spacecraft, and the Progress cargo spacecraft will burn up directly in the atmosphere when they return.
This is because the spacecraft is quite fast when flying in low Earth orbit, reaching or approaching the Earth's first cosmic velocity of 7.9 kilometers per second. When the spacecraft returns to the Earth from space at such a fast speed, it needs to enter the Earth's atmosphere, and when it flies at more and more altitudes, the air resistance encountered is increasing, and the aerodynamic heating effect will become stronger and stronger. In such a situation, the temperature outside the spacecraft would rise dramatically, reaching more than 1,000 °C.
For example, cargo spacecraft, rocket wreckage, and satellite wreckage will directly turn to ashes when they are burned at such high temperatures, because the materials of these spacecraft cannot withstand such high temperatures. The situation is not the same with the return capsule of manned spacecraft.
In order to allow the astronauts to return home safely, the spacecraft return capsule has been specially designed, for example, there will be a complete life support system inside, which can provide astronauts with a constant temperature and pressure environment, even if the outside temperature is as high as more than 1000 °C, but the internal temperature of the return capsule is still very comfortable.
Although the design of the return capsule of the manned spacecraft is relatively complex, and the exterior is coated with ablative materials and thermal insulation materials to protect the return capsule, in order to ensure safety, it is generally not possible to return to the spacecraft with problems when it is known that there is a problem with the spacecraft.
Because we had no way of predicting what would happen to the ship during the return. Therefore, if the United States finally has no way to solve the problem of the "Starliner" spacecraft, it is estimated that these two astronauts will not return on the "Starliner".