The makeup of the SpaceX Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station was announced publicly Thursday evening and it includes three astronauts who were previously assigned to other missions.
Leading the flight, scheduled for no earlier than July 2025, is NASA astronaut Zena Cardman. She will be joined by fellow NASA astronaut and pilot Mike Fincke, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov.
These four will be on the space station when the ISS marks the 25th anniversary of continuous human presence on the orbiting outpost. Expedition 1 docked to the station on Nov. 2, 2000.
Crew-11 will have a short handover with Crew-10, which arrived at the station earlier this month.
Cardman was previously assigned to be the commander of the Crew-9 mission. The original lineup of Cardman along with NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Stephanie Wilson as well as Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov was announced back in January 2024.
NASA’s decision on August 24, 2024, that the Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test mission would conclude with the spacecraft returning uncrewed, led to Cardman and Wilson being removed from that mission and becoming eligible for reassignment down the road.
So far, NASA has not announced if Wilson has been assigned to a new mission and if so, which one.
Changes for Starliner-1
The Crew-11 announcement also creates the latest shakeup for the Starliner-1 mission.
Back in 2018, when NASA astronaut Eric Boe withdrew from the Starliner Crew Flight Test mission lineup, he was replaced by Fincke alongside fellow NASA astronaut Nicole Mann and Boeing astronaut Chris Ferguson.
Fincke was then referred to as part of the “cadre of Starliner astronauts” alongside Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams during a May 18, 2022, prelaunch briefing for the Starliner Orbital Flight Test 2 (OFT-2). In June 2022, Williams was moved from the Starliner-1 mission to the Starliner Crew Flight Test and Fincke was named the backup pilot for CFT.
Then, in September 2022, NASA announced astronaut Scott Tingle would serve as the Starliner-1 commander with Fincke in the pilot seat. NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps, who had been a mission specialist for the Starliner-1 mission began cross-training on Dragon around this time, which foreshadowed her eventual reassignment to the SpaceX Crew-8 mission in August 2023.
In November 2023, the last formal member of the Starliner-1 mission was named. Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Joshua Kutryk was appointed to the mission specialist role. At that time, the Starliner-1 mission was scheduled to launch no earlier than the beginning of 2025.
As part of its announcement on Thursday, NASA also named JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui as a Crew-11 mission specialist. While Yui was never formally named as a member of the Starliner-1 mission, he was present during the rollout of the Starliner spacecraft alongside Fincke, Kutryk, Tingle, Williams and Wilmore.
He has also posted multiple times to his account on X describing various training exercises he participated in on the Starliner spacecraft.
Spaceflight Now reached out to NASA to see if Kutryk and Tingle are still part of the Starliner-1 crew. As of publishing, an answer has not been provided.
Future for Boeing Starliner
Meanwhile, NASA and Boeing are continuing to work through data gathered during the Starliner CFT mission from last summer. In a blog post, NASA said “more than 70% of flight observations and in-flight anomalies being closed at program-level control boards.”
However, it said the “major in-flight propulsion system anomalies” seen during the mission still remain as outstanding items and likely will until “further into 2025, pending the outcome of various ground test campaigns and potential system upgrades.”
A new testing campaign is being planned for the spring and summer, which will take place at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico. That’s the site where Boeing and NASA attempted to troubleshoot the propulsion issues during the Starliner mission as they debated whether it was safe to return with crew.
“Testing at White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico will include integrated firing of key Starliner thrusters within a single service module doghouse to validate detailed thermal models and inform potential propulsion and spacecraft thermal protection system upgrades, as well as operational solutions for future flights,” NASA said. “These solutions include adding thermal barriers within the doghouse to better regulate temperatures and changing the thruster pulse profiles in flight to prevent overheating.
“Meanwhile, teams are continuing testing of new helium system seal options to mitigate the risk of future leaks.”
NASA said it is looking at options for what the next flight of Starliner might look like. The agency noted that while plans are being put in place to support a “crew-capable post-certification mission,” which would likely be some version of the Starliner-1 flight, they could also chose a cargo-only option, “depending on the needs of the agency.”
“Once we get through these planned test campaigns, we will have a better idea of when we can go fly the next Boeing flight,” said Steve Stich, manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. “We’ll continue to work through certification toward the end of this year and then go figure out where Starliner fits best in the schedule for the International Space Station and its crew and cargo missions. It is likely to be in the timeframe of late this calendar year or early next year for the next Starliner flight.”
source: spaceflightnow.com