SpaceX may be forced to come to the aid of two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station after their Boeing Starliner suffered a troubling helium leak.
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunny Williams blasted off into space aboard the Starliner on June 5 and were only supposed to stay on the ISS for nine days, but problems with the craft have left their return date still up in the air, and NASA is now frantically trying to help solve the problem .
Boeing’s rival SpaceX could potentially be tapped to bring them home aboard its Crew Dragon spacecraft.
The result will serve as a major blow to beleaguered aerospace giant Boeing, which has spent about $1.5 billion in cost overruns — beyond its original $4.5 billion contract with NASA — in hopes of making the Starliner a second option to reach the ISS.
Although NASA and Boeing officials reiterated that the current problems aboard the Starliner do not indicate a need for SpaceX to lend a hand, Crew Dragon is up to the task.
The SpaceX craft, which recently carried four astronauts to the ISS in March, can carry two to four passengers at a time, but can accommodate additional passengers in an emergency.
SpaceX was the only commercial company approved to transport astronauts and cargo to the space station starting in 2020.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment on Tuesday.
Michael Lembeck, an associate professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who was a consultant for Boeing’s space flight division from 2009 to 2014, told The Post that the Starliner is still likely to be Wilmore’s ride and Williams back to Earth.
“Right now, I would say the need to activate SpaceX is very small,” Lembeck said. “We will have to see a major problem emerge in the next few days to justify this reaction.”
Lembeck and Katsuo Kurabayashi, a professor of aerospace engineering at New York University, told The Post that NASA most likely delayed the return home so they could spend more time studying the craft while it was still attached to ISS to learn more about what went wrong and how to avoid it for your next mission.
While the capsule carrying the astronauts will return to Earth, the service module — which stores the engines, fuel and helium tanks — will not, Lembeck explained.
“With enough helium gas remaining, it is prudent for the teams to take sufficient time to ensure that the Starliner is fully prepared and certified for the return trip,” Kurabayashi added.
The NYU professor noted that the situation remains fluid and that the next updates coming from NASA will be an indicator of how the problem has developed.
“If they happen to start talking about a rescue mission, that would mean there are some serious, potentially life-threatening hardware defects found with the Sarliner,” Kurabayashi said.
The last time a NASA astronaut needed help returning to Earth was in 2022, when the Russian Soyuz capsule developed a leak with American Frank Rubio on board.
While NASA considered using SpaceX to help, Rubio ended up returning aboard an empty Soyuz capsule that Russia had launched.
The incident extended Rubio’s six-month mission to one that lasted more than a year, or 371 days, a record for an American in space.
