NPR’s Adrian Florido talks to former astronaut Terry Virts about what the Boeing Starliner astronauts might go through after being in space longer than they thought they would.
ADRIAN FLORIDO, GUEST:
In early June, NASA launched its Starliner probe into space. It was a test run of the new Boeing spaceship. The plan was to dock it to the International Space Station and return home to Earth after about a week. Well, it’s been over a month and the ship is still up. A series of malfunctions delayed the Starliner’s return indefinitely.
To learn more about it and find out what it means for the two astronauts on board, we called Terry Virts. He is a former Air Force colonel and NASA astronaut. He also served as commander of the International Space Station. Colonel Virts, welcome.
TERRY VIRTS: Thanks for inviting me.
FLORIDO: What was your reaction when you heard that the Starliner would have to stay in space longer than originally planned?
VIRTS: My first reaction was that this is probably good news for the two Boeing astronauts. They’re, you know, they get a few bonus weeks in space. And you never know when your next space flight will happen, so I’m sure astronauts are happy to get some bonus time and space. Also, the space station crew—that’s the seven astronauts that are there—I’m sure they’re glad to have some, you know, free work for a couple of extra weeks. So the astronauts themselves are happy, I’m sure.
FLORIDO: But what’s the problem up there? I mean, why couldn’t this ship come back?
VIRTS: This is a test flight. So Boeing – this is the only test flight of a human astronaut. And then it will work. So they have to make sure they are certified. Certification is a big word in the NASA ecosystem. And they had a problem with docking. Some of the small rocket engines that drive the spacecraft were malfunctioning. They were fired. And some helium, which is the gas we use to make the propellant, which – compresses the propellant. There were small helium leaks. So they sealed the helium. Helium is no longer leaking. And – but – I think they’re really trying to focus on what caused the little rocket engines to fire. Because it’s a test flight and this is a certification mission, they really want to take their time and understand what happened.
FLORIDO: Well, NASA and Boeing officials are pretty adamant that the two astronauts who flew there with the ship, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, were not stranded. Is this technically correct? Do you agree that they are not stuck up there?
VIRTS: That’s right. In fact, they actually stated that if there was an emergency, they could jump into the capsule, close the hatch, and return to Earth. But again, this is a test flight, and the real goal—you know what Boeing wants and what NASA wants—is to declare this thing certified. They want to take a big bureaucratic stamp and a Starliner certified stamp. You know, and in order to do that, they basically have some free time. There’s a couple of weeks where they can stay and their – you know, the engineers can analyze all the data to understand what’s going on with the helium and the jets. Once they return to Earth, they will never be able to retrieve this data.
FLORIDO: You were reportedly in space for 169 days in 2015, but NASA delayed your return after a Russian rocket that was very similar to the one that was supposed to be used to carry your replacement crew to the airport exploded. space station. You ended up being there for about another month. Tell us a little bit about what was going through your mind when you heard the news that you were going to be staying longer than you planned? Have you been in this limbo?
VIRTS: Yes. It was a little bit different because we, you know, it was a six-month mission. It wasn’t just a one or two week mission and we were ready to go back. And you know, when they had that accident, the first thought was, well, we’ve just lost some supplies because there was a — another American cargo ship blew up a few months ago. So we kind of ran out of supplies. And then our next thought was, I don’t think they’re going to launch our replacement crew because — they’d launch basically on the same Soyuz rocket. So we were stuck in space, low on supplies, and didn’t know how long. It was kind of funny. It was like COVID. Before there was COVID, it was COVID in space – minus the virus. We were just stuck and running low on supplies and didn’t know for how long.
FLORIDO: How long do you think they can be up there? I mean, how long can it take for NASA to figure this out and say, OK, we’re ready to bring you back?
VIRTS: Well, I think they’ll probably be there for a couple more weeks. It may be longer. I don’t know exactly what technical data they need to get, what technical data they want to get. You know, I think they got what they needed. They can come back tomorrow and be safe. But I’m sure Boeing doesn’t want him to have to fly another test mission. So they will probably stay there as long as they need to get certified.
FLORIDO: I just wonder if these astronauts changed enough, you know?
VIRTS: (Laughs) I thought the same thing. So the only thing you don’t have to worry about – the space station has more than enough supplies. There’s – I don’t know the exact number, but there’s about a year of food, oxygen and water. And so there are a lot of such stocks. So that they know if they’ve actually taken enough underwear and, you know, need some exercise shoes – I’m sure they’ve done that as a contingency plan, or they can borrow their crewmates’ stuff. And so I think it’s not a problem.
FLORIDO: What advice would you give to those astronauts?
VIRTS: I’d say just enjoy it. You know, during my – it ended up being a month – I took a lot of pictures. I worked on an IMAX film called “A Beautiful Planet.” So I helped shoot a lot of the film during my bonus month. And stay busy. You don’t want to, you know, just sit. But I know these two, they won’t sit. And I’m sure NASA will have plenty of work for them. The to-do list is always long and unfinished on space stations, so there’s a lot of work to be done.
FLORIDO: Is there anything in particular you’ll be paying attention to when he eventually comes back, whenever that is?
VIRTS: Yes. The biggest question is, will they be able to certify? I mean, this is by far the main thing — that’s the big question because Boeing wants it certified to start launching, you know, normal missions with four astronauts on board instead of two. NASA normally only flies two astronauts on the first flight just because it’s safe and you don’t want to risk more lives than you have to. But Boeing will want this thing certified (unintelligible). If you haven’t been reading the news for the past few years, there have been some bad headlines about Boeing. So they really want success.
FLORIDO: I spoke with Colonel Terry Virts. He is a former NASA astronaut. Thank you for joining us.
VIRTS: Thanks for inviting me.
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