Astronauts On ISS Describe Moment They Realized Something Was Wrong With Starliner

 

Astronauts On ISS Describe Moment They Realized Something Was Wrong With Starliner

Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have been stranded for over a month.

Two NASA astronauts who have been stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) have described the moment they realized that the spaceship that brought them there was faulty. The astronauts – Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore – departed for the ISS on June 5, the third and final test of Boeing's new Starliner capsule, and its first launch with a crew.

“Launch was spectacular," Wilmore said on Wednesday, speaking live from the ISS. "I mean, truly amazing." 

While in space, but not yet docked with the ISS, the astronauts took over manual control for over an hour of flight demonstrations. Of these initial tests, Wilmore explained that the spaceship held "truly amazing" precision, adding that the spaceship "performed unbelievably well", at least at first. The problems began the following day, as the spacecraft was in its usual autonomous mode.

"And then we got into day 2. The start of day 2 was the same starting off, and then we did have some failures as we are all aware. We lost an RCS jet, then we lost another one. And then you could tell the thrust, the control, the capability was degraded. The handling qualities were not the same."

The crew resumed manual control of the spacecraft for about an hour, having been granted permission by NASA, troubleshooting the problems from the ground.

"From that point on you could tell that the thrust was degraded," Wilmore added. "At the time we didn't know why."