The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) admitted there was a “difference of opinion” with Boeing during a discussion about the return plan for astronauts Sunita Williams and Bitch Wilmore.
Steve Stich, manager of the Commercial Crew Program at NASA Kennedy Space Center, said at a news conference Wednesday night that it was “a difficult decision to make” and that “it was very difficult to determine whether we should let the crew go or not.”
“I would say the teams were very divided…and [due to the] uncertainty regarding the booster…the NASA team chose to send Butch and Suni back [SpaceX] “Dragon,” said Stich.
When asked if there were “heated discussions” or “almost a shouting match” between the NASA and Boeing teams during the meeting, Stitch responded, “I wouldn't say it was a shouting match… it was a tense technical discussion…” Stitch said.
“The last meeting we had, where we were talking about technicals about different positions and analysis… I wouldn't describe it as heated discussions… anytime you're in a meeting of this size and you're making these kinds of decisions, there's a certain tension in the room,” Stitch added.
The NASA official indicated that Boeing was confident in the model they had developed to prevent wear on the booster during the remainder of the flight.
But “the NASA team looked at the model and saw some limitations,” he added. “It really had to do with, do we really trust the thrusters and how much can we protect our degradation from deorbit burn separation. The NASA team, because of the uncertainty in the modeling, couldn't be comfortable with that,” Stich said.
Meanwhile, International Space Station Manager Dana Weigel explained Boeing's perspective, saying Boeing is “in a slightly different position in terms of our understanding of the risks and what we're facing without Starliner.”
“That's also a reason for the different opinions… Boeing also said earlier that… they can't influence that part of the agency (NASA),” Weigel said.
NASA decided to send Boeing's Starliner spacecraft back to Earth without crew members Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore due to uncertainties surrounding the spacecraft.
NASA said Wednesday that everything is on track for the Starliner capsule to undock from the space station Friday evening. The fully automated capsule will aim for a landing at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico six hours later.
Meanwhile, the two NASA astronauts who flew aloft on Starliner remain behind in the orbiting lab. They will fly home on SpaceX in February 2025, eight months after launching on what was supposed to be a week-long test flight.
