Boeing crew flight test astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore (center) with NASA astronaut and Expedition 71 flight engineer Mike Barratt on June 24, 2024 (Left) poses with Tracy Dyson wearing spacesuits in the International Space Station’s Quest airlock.
NASA (AP/NASA)
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NASA (AP/NASA)
Two NASA astronauts will stay at the International Space Station for a longer period of time as engineers work to solve problems that arose during Boeing’s new space capsule’s journey to the International Space Station.
NASA on Friday did not set a return date until ground testing is completed and said the astronauts were safe.
“We’re in no rush to get home,” said Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial crew program manager.
On June 5, veteran NASA test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams boarded Boeing’s Starliner capsule to launch from the orbiting laboratory. Launching astronauts into orbit for the first time after years of delays and setbacks.
The test flight is expected to last about a week, long enough for Wilmore and Williams to inspect the capsule while docked at the space station. However, problems with the capsule propulsion system used to control the spacecraft prompted NASA and Boeing to delay the return several times while they analyzed the fault.
They also want to avoid conflicts with spacewalks by astronauts on the space station. But this week’s spacewalk was canceled due to a leak in the astronaut’s spacesuit. The issue has not been resolved and a planned spacewalk next week has been postponed.
As Starliner approached the space station a day after launch, a last-minute thruster failure nearly derailed the docking. Five of the capsule’s 28 thrusters failed during the docking process; all but one were restarted.
Starliner already had a small helium leak as the rocket entered orbit, and several more leaks occurred during the flight. Helium is used to pressurize the thruster’s fuel. Boeing said this week that the two issues were not a backhaul issue.
To delay the astronauts’ return, NASA and Boeing said they needed more time to gather information about thruster failures and leaks during the capsule’s docking. Both are housed in the service module, a unit attached to the capsule that burns up during re-entry.
NASA initially said Starliner could stay at the space station for up to 45 days due to battery limitations. But flight tests showed that limit could be extended, Stich said.
Officials said they would not set a return date while they conduct ground tests of the capsule thrusters in the New Mexico desert, which are expected to last several weeks. They wanted to try to replicate what happens when docked.
“I want to make it clear that Butch and Suny are not stranded in space,” Stich said, adding that Starliner was designed for missions of up to 210 days.
Stich said that if an emergency occurs on the space station, astronauts can return to Earth on the Starliner.
After the space shuttle was retired, NASA handed over astronaut ride services to private companies. Elon Musk’s SpaceX has flown nine taxi flights for NASA since 2020.
