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00:00Next, two astronauts, who should have been back on Earth weeks ago, said this Wednesday
00:05that they're confident the Boeing's space capsule can return them safely in spite of
00:10breakdowns.
00:11NASA test pilots Bush Wilmore and Suni Williams launched aboard Boeing's new Starliner capsule
00:17early last month.
00:18They were the first people to ride it.
00:20They should have been back by now, but they are still, as you can see, in a state of weightlessness
00:26in orbit.
00:27Here at France 24, Caitlin Kelly with this.
00:32A mission only scheduled for eight days now rolls into its fifth week, as the Boeing Starliner's
00:39return journey has been repeatedly postponed due to leaks and thruster failures.
00:45Astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams are confident they can return home after testing.
00:50In the meantime, their spirits are high aboard the International Space Station.
00:55We've been thoroughly busy up here, integrated right into the crew, and every once a week
01:01we get to jump into Starliner and talk to our control team there.
01:05The system that enables the capsule to back away from the space station into the Earth's
01:09atmosphere is faulty.
01:11Boeing have branded this moment as advantageous, a chance to do further checks while the craft
01:16is still in orbit.
01:18This is the world of test.
01:21This is a tough business that we're in.
01:23Human spaceflight is not easy in any regime and there have been multiple issues with every
01:29spacecraft that's ever been designed and that's the nature of what we do.
01:34That mantra you've heard, failure is not an option, that's why we are staying here now.
01:39We did have some degradation in our thrusters and we know that and that's why we're staying
01:43because we're going to test it.
01:45That's what we do.
01:46A year behind schedule and $1.5 billion over budget, this NASA Boeing mission had experienced
01:52technical issues before it left Earth.
01:56After multiple incidents and two high-profile crashes in recent years, Starliner, Boeing's
02:01first manned expedition, was pegged as a reputation rebuilder.
02:06With no timeline for return, the astronauts might have to jump aboard SpaceX's Dragon
02:11spacecraft to get home.
02:16Thanks to Kate and Kelly for that report.
02:17Let's get some broader analysis.
02:18David Mamoun brings us his from Toulouse, joining us live, Professor Mamoun.
02:23Thanks for being with us.
02:24Thank you.
02:25Clarify for me, because from a layman's perspective, I feel like I'm having the wool pull over
02:30my eyes.
02:31As the French would put it, I've been sort of rolled in the flour kind of thing.
02:34What would you say to that?
02:36No, actually, we've got good reasons to believe what the astronauts said, what Butch Wilmore
02:45said, because actually, this is a flight which is designed to test the readiness of the overall
02:54systems.
02:55And so, it's not absolutely unusual to get some problems.
03:00Typically, when you compare to other system tests, like SpaceX, you've got also failures.
03:07And what happens at this time is that they just scenarize the failures and tell you,
03:12wow, look, it blows up.
03:15And now, they're just saying plain and plain, OK, we've got a problem, we're going to investigate.
03:21So basically, what you're seeing here is different ways of coping with the difficulty of flight
03:28systems.
03:29Elon Musk, well known as a self-promotionalist, and of course, SpaceX, according to him, is
03:33absolutely fantastic, no problems whatsoever, but it appears to be working.
03:37Is the big issue with this, and I'm satisfied by your explanation, I should put away my
03:41natural scepticism.
03:43But when you look at Boeing's record down to earth, with the issues of various aircraft,
03:49understandably people might have doubts.
03:51Absolutely.
03:52Absolutely.
03:53I think there are two underlying things behind that.
03:58First, as I said, it's not unusual to get some issues.
04:02And here, there are two types of issues.
04:03There is a pressurization of tanks with helium.
04:07Helium is a very light gas.
04:11And so, it's very easy to get a leak, to get the pressurization.
04:16The more problematic issue here is that they've got experience problems with the thrusters,
04:24and the thrusters did not work correctly.
04:26And so, they had to dock by hand, so that they were able to do that very efficiently.
04:34But on the other hand, and I think you're right, there is an overall doubt on the whole
04:39space and the Boeing ways of doing things.
04:42Because actually, some people say that Boeing has been more focused on making profits rather
04:49than pure engineering.
04:51And here at Joupero, of course, we are raising engineers and we are training them to be the
04:57best efficient.
04:58And of course, from an engineering point of view, we want the engineers to be in charge
05:02and not the financial ways of seeing things.
05:06And that's probably one of the underlying issues behind this skepticism about the problems
05:12of the system.
05:15But the Starliner will be actually, their explanation is absolutely correct.
05:23When the Starliner will go back on Earth, they will destroy actually the module with
05:28the thrusters.
05:29And so, they want to get some more data while they are still in orbit in order to get some
05:36corrections for the next flight that will happen, as they say, probably one year from
05:40now.
05:41And you mentioned, David, docking by hand.
05:44That sounds incredibly primitive.
05:45It's not as silly as I'm imagining it.
05:47Is it docking by hand?
05:48Yeah, kind of.
05:49Really?
05:50There are backups and backups and backups.
05:53Actually, there are systems, automated systems that can help docking, that can make the docking,
06:01which is very, very precise.
06:04I mean, it's a fraction of a centimeter.
06:08And what they said is that they're finally, with the help of their systems, they were
06:14in control of the systems in order to get the docking.
06:17But the docking was incredibly precise and efficient.
06:22But that's a problem.
06:23When you've got too much failure, you need to be able to count on an experienced crew.
06:30And that's what happened, actually.
06:32David Muin of Space Systems Toulouse, thank you, sir, for joining us and giving us that
06:37very detailed and clear explanation about what is happening all those miles above us
06:41in the atmosphere.
06:42Thank you very much indeed for watching for all developments as they come back down to
06:46Earth.