Orbit Error
It looks like NASA officials might be seeing the writing on the wall for the very troubled Boeing Starliner, which has marooned two astronauts up in space for almost two months due to technical issues.
An unnamed "informed" source told Ars Technica that there's a greater than 50 percent probability that the stranded astronauts will end up leaving the International Space Station on a SpaceX Dragon capsule, with another unnamed person telling the news outlet that the scenario is highly likely.
NASA officials are more cagey about what's happening on the record, a marked contrast from previous weeks when they expressed confidence in the Starliner's ability to safely bring back the astronauts.
"NASA is evaluating all options for the return of agency astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams from the International Space Station as safely as possible," NASA spokesperson Josh Finch told Ars. "No decisions have been made and the agency will continue to provide updates on its planning."
The Starliner project has been cursed from the beginning, with delays and hardware issues during the development and production of the capsule, which has seen Boeing eating something like $1.6 billion in losses.
Despite technical troubles before the launch, NASA went ahead with Starliner's first crewed mission in June. While on approach towards the space station, Starliner experienced helium leaks and issues with its thrusters, forcing NASA and Boeing to delay its return back home with the astronauts so that engineers back on the ground could troubleshoot the problems.
Fess Up
Many signs are now pointing towards SpaceX rescuing the stranded astronauts, according to Ars. These signs include the space agency giving more than a quarter million dollars to SpaceX for a "SPECIAL STUDY FOR EMERGENCY RESPONSE," and SpaceX actively training for the likely situation of the company sending a Dragon capsule to the space station to bring the astronauts home.
If SpaceX does get the green light, expect the Starliner project to be shoved into the proverbial dumpster, according to Ars' analysis.
It would be a bad look all around, because it would mean the American government had funneled a total of $5.8 billion into malfunctioning junk.
If this scenario happens, with Starliner not deemed safe enough for human travel, we hope politicians and others investigate what went wrong, given that SpaceX has managed to build the immensely more reliable Dragon capsule at 50 percent less cost than Boeing's spacecraft.
What kind of oversight did NASA bring to the Starliner program during its development and production process?
That's just one hard question among many.