(NewsNation) — NASA announced another delay in bringing Boeing’s Starliner capsule back to Earth on its first crewed test flight, pushing the return date to June 26.
The Starliner launched earlier in June, carrying astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams to the International Space Station. The pair were initially scheduled to return after a week but NASA has repeatedly pushed the test date back as it investigates issues with the capsule.
Starliner’s rocky road
Boeing has experienced significant delays getting a crewed capsule to space, lagging about four years behind SpaceX, the other participant in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The company has also faced an expanding budget when it comes to developing spacecraft.
Starliner’s launch was scrubbed multiple times before the first crewed test flight finally took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. One issue discovered was a small helium leak in the capsule’s service module.
Boeing and NASA elected not to fix the issue before launch, in part because it would have required disassembling and reassembling the entire spacecraft. Instead, they announced they would be monitoring the leak throughout the test flight.
Wilmore and Williams blasted off successfully and arrived at the space station but the issues with Starliner have continued.
Helium leaks and testing
NASA discovered three additional helium leaks after Starliner launched, all of which were characterized as minor. Another was discovered after the capsule docked with the ISS. Helium is used to power thrusters that give the crew finer control of the capsule for maneuvers like docking.
During docking, Wilmore and Williams reported problems with the thrusters with five of the 28 going offline. They missed the initial docking window while troubleshooting the issue and eventually brought four of the thrusters back online and docked successfully.
Previously, NASA said that despite the leaks, there was enough helium on board for about 70 hours of free flight time. The crew would need seven hours of free flight time to complete their return trip. To complicate things more, the service module is jettisoned before landing, which means engineers must rely on data fed back from the flight and will not be able to physically examine the capsule.
The Starliner is also set to attempt a touch-down landing rather than the traditional splash-down ocean landing. The capsule has successfully touched down on previous test flights but never with crew inside.
Delays returning astronauts
NASA and Boeing have said they are delaying the return to continue troubleshooting issues with the capsule.
While Wilmore and Williams are presently stuck on the ISS, there’s no cause for major concern. The space station has four months of food and water on board, so an extended stay shouldn’t pose any issues on that front.
NASA also has rescue vehicles available and in the past, those have been sent to the ISS when needed. So even if Starliner can’t make the return trip, Wilmore and Williams should be able to get home.
For Boeing, however, Starline’s issues come after a string of safety issues with the company’s planes and whistleblower reports of disregard for safety in the company culture. The company could use an image boost at the moment but with all the issues, it isn’t clear Starliner will do the trick.