Katherine Firkin: US Correspondent says Boeing's astronauts are likely to remain stuck in space into July

Two astronauts are likely to remain stuck in space into July.  

Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams were supposed to return on the Boeing Starliner about two weeks ago after an eight day stint in space.  

US Correspondent Katherine Firkin told Mike Hosking that there have been several issues including malfunctioning thrusters and helium leaks.  

She says we're being told they have plenty of supplies, and worst case they can hitch a ride on Space X's Dragon Space Craft which is also attached to the International Space Station. 

Firkin says it's not great news for Boeing, when it comes to their PR. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Katherine Perkin is in the States. Where's Katherine? Morning to you?

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Hi there mate.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
These astronauts, I got to say, when I initially was
going to go up, not that I was going to
go up, but these astronauts, and it was a Boeing,
you'd have to ask some serious questions. And now they're
up there and this sort of stuck.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Yes, I think it was only a couple of weeks
ago we were talking about the spaceline of finally having
this success, successful mission, blasting off into space with these
two astronauts on board. But unfortunately they are pretty much
stuck up there for the moment. The mission was meant
to be just eight days long. Now we're being told
they probably won't be heading home until early next month

(00:38):
at the absolute soonest, and that's due to several issues
with this Boeing craft. They've had malfunctioning thrusters and a
series of helium leaks. What's a big problem for Boeing's
engineers is that these issues are occurring on what's called
the service module. It's essentially a little attachment that sits
at the bottom of the aircraft and it's a part
of the craft that will actually be jettisoned and discarded

(01:00):
before the capsule returns home. So if they don't fix
it now up in orbit, they're never going to get
a chance to actually see what's going wrong. And that's
even if they can bring the craft home. At this
point they don't know. So for the moment those astronauts
have stuck up there, we're being told they've got plenty
of supplies. Worst case, they can hitch a right on
SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, which is also attached to the International

(01:23):
Space Station. But certainly not the pr that Boeing would
have been wanting at the moment.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Exactly. I'm noting the Supreme Court for a busy today.
They've handed down some information on the abortion business. But
also earlier on today there's social media six ' three
What did they say?

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah, that's right, And it has been a busy time
for the Supreme Court. Essentially, this social media case was
all about free speech. Conservatives had challenged the Biden's administration's
efforts to really pressure social media companies into removing certain
posts that it deemed misinformation. Pretty much arose from the
time of COVID with a flood of contentious posts over

(02:05):
COVID nineteen and vaccines that Biden administration insisted they had
the right to get misinformation removed, Conservatives that it was
breaching free speech. Basically, no harms being done is the
ruling from the Supreme Court. But this, of course all
comes just a day before tomorrow's big presidential debate, so
it is a bit of a win for Biden as

(02:26):
we go into that one. I'm not sure how excited
we really are about this debate. There's no studio audience,
there's the ability to mute the candidate's microphone, so I
don't think it's going to be as hot and tempered
as we've seen in the past. And if we don't
all fall asleep, it might give us a bit of
a look into the next nineteen weeks coming up to
this big election.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Catch up with you, sir, Catherine. Appreciate it very much,
Catherine Ferkin, I think for more from News Talk sed B.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
Listen live on air or online, and

Speaker 1 (02:53):
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