Two Nasa astronauts aboard the International Space Station have said that they trust the Boeing Starliner spacecraft to bring them home safely despite its multiple technical issues.
Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, speaking from the station during an online media briefing on Wednesday, arrived on June 6 for what was initially planned as a week-long test flight mission.
The craft has suffered multiple helium leaks and thruster issues since arriving there, causing the crew's return to be delayed repeatedly, with no firm unlocking date set yet by Boeing and Nasa.
“I feel confident that if we had to, if there was a problem with the International Space Station, we can get in our spacecraft, we can undock, talk to our team and figure out the best way to come home,” said Ms Williams, an experienced astronaut who logged more than 322 days in space before this mission.
“We've practised a lot, so I have a real good feeling in my heart that this spacecraft will bring us home.”
Boeing has insisted that they are delaying the return so that they can get more testing done before the craft can undock from the station, as the service module will be discarded upon re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.
The company and Nasa are now carrying out ground tests in New Mexico, in which they are replicating thruster issues that the craft experienced during its flight in a vacuum chamber to learn more about the problem.
Starliner has to depart before August so that it frees up the docking part for the next set of astronauts, Nasa/SpaceX Crew-9, to arrive at the station aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule.
“A few days before that launch opportunity we would need to get Butch and Suni home on Starliner,” Steve Stich, commercial crew programme manager at Nasa, said in a media briefing last night.
“We’re really working to try to follow the data and see when is the earliest we could target for undock and landing. I think some of the data suggests, optimistically, it’s by the end of July.”
The experienced astronauts arrived at the ISS on June 6 for what was initially planned as a week-long test flight mission Reuters
He said they were also considering the option of making Crew-8, who are currently serving a mission aboard the station, depart earlier than planned so that a docking port is available.
Boeing has a $4.2 billion contract under Nasa's Commercial Crew Programme to develop a craft that can help safely launch and bring back astronauts for the agency.
Starliner has been in development for a decade and has faced multiple technical issues over the years.
Meanwhile, SpaceX has launched eight crews for Nasa so far using its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule.
MWTC
Tickets start from Dh100 for adults and are now on sale at www.ticketmaster.ae and Virgin Megastores across the UAE. Three-day and travel packages are also available at 20 per cent discount.
Evacuations to France hit by controversy
Over 500 Gazans have been evacuated to France since November 2023
Evacuations were paused after a student already in France posted anti-Semitic content and was subsequently expelled to Qatar
The Foreign Ministry launched a review to determine how authorities failed to detect the posts before her entry
Artists and researchers fall under a programme called Pause that began in 2017
It has benefited more than 700 people from 44 countries, including Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Sudan
Since the start of the Gaza war, it has also included 45 Gazan beneficiaries
Unlike students, they are allowed to bring their families to France
Moscow claimed it hit the largest military fuel storage facility in Ukraine, triggering a huge fireball at the site.
A plume of black smoke rose from a fuel storage facility in the village of Kalynivka outside Kyiv on Friday after Russia said it had destroyed the military site with Kalibr cruise missiles.
"On the evening of March 24, Kalibr high-precision sea-based cruise missiles attacked a fuel base in the village of Kalynivka near Kyiv," the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.
Ukraine confirmed the strike, saying the village some 40 kilometres south-west of Kyiv was targeted.
Frankenstein in Baghdad
Ahmed Saadawi
Penguin Press
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MATCH INFO
Juventus 1 (Dybala 45')
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Red card: Rodrigo Bentancur (Juventus)
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
