The delay isn’t over yet for Boeing’s Starliner capsule. After years of delays, the aviation giant The spacecraft was finally launched earlier this month, but the two-person crew will spend more than twice the planned time in space due to continuing technical problems in orbit.
On Tuesday, NASA and Boeing officials confirmed that astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams will now return to Earth on June 26, instead of the originally scheduled June 14 date. In other words, they will spend at least 20 days on board. International Space Station (ISS) instead of just eight.
The postponement is meant to “give our team more time to look at the data and do some analysis and make sure that we’re really prepared to come home,” NASA administrator Steve Stich said during a press conference on Tuesday.
Engineers will continue to take a closer look at the technical problems the Starliner has encountered so far during this test mission, including a persistent helium leak in the propulsion system and several thrusters that stopped working when the capsule stopped working. It was in the final stage of rendezvous with the International Space Station.
Four of the five thrusters that malfunctioned during the spacecraft’s approach to the International Space Station were resolved, but one engine remained offline, and engineers decided to abandon further attempts to bring it back online. However, the Starliner has 28 thrusters overall, so failure of one of them would not affect the spacecraft’s ability to separate from the ISS or fail to put the astronauts on track to return to Earth. Engineers are also confident that the helium leak rate will not affect the Starliner’s ability to complete its remaining objectives, although they are still trying to determine the exact cause of the problem.
One reason engineers take their time to understand the problems is because the thrusters and helium leaks are located in a part of the spacecraft known as the service module, which burns up in the atmosphere during reentry, Stitch said.
If engineers feel they have collected the data they need on the vehicle and that it is airworthy, mission commander Willmore and copilot Williams will detach from the ISS on June 25 and land at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico at 1:51. AM PT the next day. The next opportunity to land will be on July 2.
Starliner is Boeing’s long-awaited astronaut transportation solution, intended to be a second option for SpaceX’s Dragon capsule that has been transporting crew to and from the International Space Station since 2020. This flight test is the final step before NASA certifies Starliner to begin flying regular missions. . The first could take place in early 2025. While Stitch was clear that no decision has been made on sticking to that timeline, he said helium leak issues and propulsion issues will need to be fully understood and resolved. Before that first mission.